
Oass_jBX£220 



Book^ _ 



■We, 

l?43 



i 







>& 



CHUECH 



ORD. 



)WAT. 



A HISTORY 



OF THE 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



IN 



AMERICA. 



. 



BY 



SAMUEL LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. 






NEW- YORK : 
STANFORD AND SWORDS, 137, BROADWAY, 

1849. 






K 



•tiNARY UBRARY* 

Duplicate Exchasgb, ... 



JAM 24 1908 



3. E. M'GOWN, PRINTER AND 3 TEREOTYl-ER, 
No. 57 ANN-STREET, NEW-YORK. ' • 



m > : *- 



t y 



B 



o 
o 

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



To the American Editor of this volume it seems im- 
portant, that the interesting historical facts contained 
in this " Church History," should be more exten- 
sively known in this country. In answer to the 
question, How is it that the history of the Church 
in these United States has been written by a Prelate 
of the Church in England ? We may be answered, 
that the opportunity afforded in England, to consult 
the works of the earlier writers upon America and 
the correspondence of the earlier missionaries to 
America, has been embraced by the Author and 
most laboriously improved. He has brought out 
many facts and selected many very interesting inci- 
dents before generally unknown. 
r > This cannot be called a complete History of the 

saH Church in this country ; but it approaches nearer to 



m 



?i 



IV 

it than any other work Before published. The char- 
acter of the various Bishops who have, after having 
ruled over their respective Dioceses, " gone to their 
rest," is admirably drawn out and perhaps with 
more impartiality than would have been done, by a 
clergyman of our own Church. Members of the 
Church in this country ought to feel under great 
obligation to the distinguished Prelate, who, amidst 
so many cares and avocations has found time to 
compile this valuable work. 

E. M. J. 



PREFACE 



In giving the following pages to the press, their Author 
desires, in the first place, to acknowledge the kindness 
which from many quarters, both in America and England, 
has supplied him with the materials for their composition. 
Never can he forget the ready aid which he has received 
from personal strangers on the other side of the Atlantic. 
To particularize any, where he cannot enumerate ail, he 
feels to be impossible. He can only express his earnest 
wish that his volume were more worthy of their several 
contributions; and his hope that, in stating openly and 
freely what seem to him to be the defects of the organiza- 
tion or conduct of their body, he shall give no needless pain 
to any one. Convinced as he is, that to draw a veil over 
such evils would be disloyalty to their common cause, he 
has felt under an imperative necessity of speaking openly 
and fully. But it would most deeply grieve him, were 
any cause of offence to be found in his words, or anything 
which could sever those who should be so closely united 
as the Churchmen of England and America. On the 
subject to which he here especially refers, namely, the 
treatment of the colored race, the use of the Church's 
moral influence in its behalf is that which alone he would 
claim. And this claim he advances under a humbling 
sense of the past deficiencies of members of his own com- 
munion. Still, in their case it must be urged, that they 



VI PREFACE. 

were afar from the sight, and therefore from the real 
knowledge, of the evils of colonial life. Those evils would 
not have been endured, had they been daily submitted to 
the eyes of the laity and clergy of the English Church. 

On one other important point a few words must here 
be added to the following pages. Throughout their course 
the Author has felt oppressed by the recurring question, 
how he ought to deal with those other religious bodies by 
which the Protestant Episcopal Church in North America 
is so abundantly surrounded. To have entered into their 
history would, within the limits of this work, have been 
absolutely impossible ; and yet, to confine himself to the 
history of one department only of the vast host which 
bears the Christian name, must of necessity give to his 
work a narrow and one-sided appearance. To escape this 
imperfection, he believes to have been unavoidable, and 
he has therefore submitted to it : writing the history, not 
of religion, but of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Only 
would he here protest against being supposed to entertain 
any intention of contemptuously passing by the many great 
deeds for Christ's truth wrought in that western world by 
the members of other societies, or of pronouncing by the 
way a decisive judgment on any of the intricate questions 
to which the co-existence of these various bodies must give 
birth. He has dealt with them only as they directly affect 
that communion whose history he writes ; and in doing so, 
he has endeavored to treat them honestly and fairly, al- 
though, from his limits, it must be slightly and imperfectly. 

Amongst those who in this country have assisted him 
with valuable materials, and to whom he would beg pub- 
licly to return his thanks, he may venture to enumerate 
his father's early friend, Thomas Clarkson : the Rev. H. 
H. Norris, of Hackney ; Petty Vaughan, Esq. ; the Lord 



PREFACE. VU 

Bishop of London, — who most liberally allowed him access 
to all the -ms. treasures of the Fulham library; the Rev. 
H. Caswall, — whose local knowledge made him able to 
revise those parts which touch upon existing institutions ; 
and the Hev. Ernest Hawkins, Secretary to the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

To the labors of that society the following pages repeat- 
edly bear witness. They show oh this one stage how, 
throughout the coldness and negligence of the last century, 
when, in this land at least, no other body so made head 
against the general apathy as to think of the foreign ad- 
vancement of the Gospel as a Christian duty, this venera- 
ble society ever followed in the wake of our colonial exten- 
sion, watched for opportunities of sowing the good seed, 
labored ever noiselessly and unobserved in this great work, 
nurtured the faint beginnings of colonial piety, and has 
been, under God's grace, the one first instrument in pre- 
venting the upgrowth of positive infidelity, and in promot- 
ing the existence and spread of Christianity throughout 
those vast districts which make up our colonial empire — 
the widest empire and the greatest trust which God ever 
committed to any people. 

The Author hopes that this may be, amongst others, 
one effect of his labor, that, seeing what was attempted, 
and what was effected, in America by this society, some of 
his readers may be aroused to consider what are indeed its 
claims upon their grateful and affectionate support. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE, 

Interest of general subject— Times of Queen Elizabeth — Influence of the 
Reformation — Martin Frobisher — His first voyage — A native kidnapped 
— Second and third voyages — Master Wolfall — Black ore — Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert — Letters patent — Religious purpose of colonisation — Prospect of 
its late fulfilment — Gilbert's second voyage— His death — Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh — His expeditions — Tobacco — Settlements — Raleigh's troubles ; and 
death — Settlement of Virginia — Robert Hunt — James Town — Captain 
Smith— Trials of the Settlers — Starving time — Lord Delaware — Master 
Bucke — Whittaker— Pochahontas— Early Laws 15 

CHAPTER II. 

from 1620 to 1688. 

Virginia Company — Measures of Sir E. Sandys, Nicholas Ferrar, and others 
— Churches endowed — College founded — Mr. Thorpe — Indian massacre — 
Indian Conquest — Effects of the massacre — Virginia in the Great Rebel- 
lion — Loyalty — Love of the Church— Effects of Puritan rule — KingCharles 
II. proclaimed — Enactments of Legislature in behalf of the Church — Po- 
pish plots suspected 34 

CHAPTER III. 

fbom 1608 to 1688. 

Neighboring colonies — New-York — New- Jersey — Philadelphia — Carolina — 
Maryland — New-England — Its settlement — Rise of Puritanism in England 
— Emigration, to Leyden, to New-England — Piety of the early Puritans — 
Their hatred of Church Principles — Severity— Treatment of Indians- 
Proselyting spirit towards other communions 43 

CHAPTER IV. 

from 1688 to 1775. 

Spiritual destitution of the colonies — Exertions of the Bishop of London, 
Hon. Robert Boyle, and others — Drs. Blair and Bray sent as commissaries 
to Virginia and Maryland — New-York conquered by English — Trinity 
Church endowed — Progress of the Church in New-En»land — Boston peti- 
tion for Episcopal worship — Foundation of the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel — Religious stote of the colonies — Labors of the Mission- 
aries of the Venerable Society — Rev. Geo. Keith — Violence of Quakers — 
Opposition from New-England magistrates — Yale College — Leading Con- 
1* 



X CONTENTS 

PACK. 

gregationalists join the Church — Progress of the Church at Newtown 
under Mr. Beach — Violence of Congregationaiists — General state of the 
Church in Virginia — Mr. Whitefield — Spreading dissent — Rise of Anabap- 
tists in Virginia — Resistance to the clergy — Low state of the Church — 
Its causes — Clergy dependent on their flocks — Want of bishops — Attempts 
to obtain an American episcopate, in the reign of Charles II., of Queen 
Anne — Bishop Berkeley opposed by Walpole — Supported by Archbishop 
Seeker — Efforts in the colonies — Zeal of northern colonies — Virginia re- 
fuses to join in the attempt — Causes of this refusal 72 

CHAPTER V. 

from 1775 to 1783-4. 

Revolutionary war — Loyalty of the Northern clergy — Persecution — Vir- 
ginian clergy generally loyal — Treated with Violence — Thomas Jefferson — 
Zeal of the Anabaptists — Their hatred to the Church — Repeal of all for- 
mer acts in its favor — Incomes of the clergy stopped — They are stripped 
even of the glebes and churches — Conduct of the Methodists — John Wes- 
ley persuaded to consecrate Dr. Coke — Depressed state of the Church at 
the end of the war — Religion at a low ebb — The revolutionary war a con- 
sequence of the Church not having been planted in America . . .131 

CHAPTER VI. 

from 1783 to 1787. 

Depression of the Church — Parties — And Opinions — attempted organisation 
in the south — Mr. White — Conventions in Virginia and Philadelphia — 
Agreement on common principles — First movements for general union — 
General voluntary meeting at New- York — Want of episcopate — Movement 
amongst the eastern clergy — They elect Dr. Seabury Bishop — He sails for 
England — Disappointed of consecration there — Dr. Berkeley and the 
Scotch bishops — Dr. Seabury applies to them — Opposition — His consecra- 
tion — And return — First Convention at Philadelphia — Difference of Opin- 
ion — Dr. White — Proposed liturgy — Application to the English prelates 
for the apostolical succession — Their objections to some changes in the 
Liturgy — These reconsidered — Drs. White and Provoost embark for Eng- 
land — Are consecrated at Lambeth — Return to America, April 1787 . 142 

CHAPTER VII. 

Convention assemblies — Case of Dr. Bass — Bishop Seabury joins the Con- 
vention — The Liturgy — First and succeeding consecrations — Period of 
depression — Its causes — Ecclesiastical constitution — Parish — Diocese — 
Convention — Laity in Convention — Anglo-Saxon usage — Difficulties of 
true organization in America — Neglect of the mother-country . . . 166 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FROM 1801 TO 1811-12. 

Death and character of Bishop Seabury— Bishop White— Bishop Provoost 
— His character— Resigns the episcopal jurisdiction— Nomination and 
consecration of Bishop Moore — His character — Improvement of the state 
of the Church— Maryland— Bishop Claggett— Party Spirit —Bishop Clag- 
get applies for a suffragan— Division of convention in 1812— Method of 
Electing a bishop— The laity negative the nomination of the clergy— Con- 
vention of 1813 — No attempt at an election made — Dr. Kemp elected suf- 
fragan in 1814— Consequent party feuds— Bishop Clasrgett's death— Dr. 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE. 

Kemp succeeds — His death — Renewed contests as to the Episcopate — 
Bishop Stoi'.e elected — Troubles on his death — The see vacant — State of 
Delaware — No Bishop— Application to Maryland — Refused — Decay of 
the Church there — And in Virginia — Issue of the long struggle with the 
Anabaptists and others— The glebes confiscated — Prostration of the Church 193 



CHAPTER IX. 

1811, 12. 

Death of Bp. Madison— Renewal of diocesan convention — Election of Dr. 
Bracken to the episcopate — He refuses it — Dr. Moore elected — His early 
life — Ministerial success — He visits the diocese — Stirs up the spirit of 
Churchmen — Revival of the Church — Growth of Church principles — Im- 
proved canons — Theological seminary founded — And poor scholars fund 
— Dr. Meade elected suffragan, with a restriction — Conduct of the houso 
of Bishops — Removal of restrictions — Bishop B. Moore of New-York ap- 
plies for an assistant Bishop — Dr. J. H. Hob art elected — His origin and 
youth — First ministerial charge in Pennsylvania — Removes to New-York 
His studies — Publications — Services in state and general Convention — 
Controversy with Dr. Mason — Elected Bishop — Opposition — Bishop Pro- 
voost's claim to the bishoprick of New-York — Disallowed by the Conven- 
tion — Bishop White's treatment of Bishop Hobart — and high esteem for 
him . 206 

CHAPTER X. 

FROM 1810 TO 1820. 

Episcopate of Bishop Hobart — First two years of opposition — Rise of Church 
societies — Effect upon the laity — New tone of feelinjr and action — Bishop 
Hobart with his clergy— His language as to the Church of Rome — His visi- 
tations — General spread of the Church — Increase of bishoprics — State of 
" the West" — Need of missionary pastors — Pioneers of the Church — Lay 
readers — Samuel Gunn — His early years — Labors — Removal to Ohio- 
Consecration of Bishop Chase — His life — Founds Kenyon College — Its 
building — Students — Their missionary excursions — How received — Funds 
for domestic purposes — Jackson Kemper— Bishop Hobart's canon — His 
labors amongst the Indians — Oneida reserves — Eleazer Williams — His 
history— The Bishop's visit 228 

CHAPTER XI. 

from 1820 to 1836. 

American education — Temper of American Youth — Jealousy of high educa- 
cation — Absence of theological training — Foundation of the General Theo- 
logical Seminary — Its success — Bishop Hobart's connexion with it — His 
death — And character — Bishop B. T. Onderdonk succeeds — Increase of 
the episcopate — Bishops Ravenscroft and Ives of North Carolina — Bishop 
Meade of Virgiuia— -And H. U. Onderdonk, assistant bishop of Pennsyl- 
vania — Bishop Chase of Ohio — Resigns his bishopric — Consecrations of 
Bishops M'llvaine of Ohio. Hopkins of Vermont. Smith of Kentucky, and 
Doane of New-Jersey — Change of feeling" as to the episcopate — Conven- 
tion of 1835— Bishop Chase of Illinois — Division of dioceses — New organi- 
zation of missionary board — The missionary bishop — Bishop Kemper con- 
secrated — Success of the new plan — Subsequent growth of the Church- 
Bishop White's illness — Death and character $61 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. PAe ». 

Present influence of the Episcopal Church — Rapid extension — Estimated 
numbers — Clergy — Extent and population of dioceses — Influence on the 
moral character of the people — Favorable symptoms — Sects— Revivals — 
Socinianism — Sober tone of* the Church — Duelling — Its character in Ame- 
rica — Instance — Church resists duels — Canon — Instance — Unfavorable 
Symptoms — Divorce — Marriage — Treatment of the colored race — The great 
sore of America — State of negroes in the South, religious, moral, physical 
— Slave-breeding states — Internal slave-trade — Duty of the Church to testi- 
fy — Her silence — Participation — Palliation of these evils — State of the 
colored population in the North — Insults — Degradation — Caste — Duty of 
the Church — Her silence — Case of General Theological Seminary — Alex- 
ander Crummell — Estimate of her influence — Her small hold on the poor — 
Architecture aud arrangement of churches — Pew-rent system — Prospects 
of the Church — Danger from indifference to formal truth — Chaplains to 
Congress — Thomas Jefferson — Romanism — Its schismatical rise in Ameri- 
ca — Spread in the West — Promises a refuge from the sects — Courts de- 
mocracy — Main resistance from the Church — How she may be strong — 
Need of adhering to her own principles — Of a high moral tone — The slave- 
question — Favorable promise — Higher principles — More care of the poor 
— Colored race— Gains on the population — Conclusion 238 



AMERICAN CHURCH 



THE 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Interest of general subject — Times of Queen Elizabeth — Influence 
of the Reformation — Martin Frobisher — His first voyage — a na- 
tive kidnapped — Second and third voyages — Master Wolfall — 
Black ore — Sir Humphrey Gilbert — Letters patent — Religious 
purpose of colonisation — Prospect of its late fulfilment — Gilbert's 
second voyage — His death — Sir Walter Raleigh — His expeditions 
— Tobacco — Settlements — Raleigh's troubles : and death — Settle- 
ment of Virginia — Robert Hunt — James Town — Captain Smith — 
Trials of the Settlers — Starving time — Lord Delaware — Master 
Bucke — "Whitaker — Pocahontas — Early laws. 

Few subjects can be more full of interest to members of 
the Church of England than the history of the Church in 
America. Indeed, the Church in every daughter nation 
has large claims on the affections of the mother state ; and 
other circumstances here combine to strengthen the strait 
bands of Christian love. Our long neglect of our bounden 
duty, followed as it has been by God's merciful acceptance 
of our latest service, may well call out our affection for 
this child of our old age. Full of interest is it also to 
watch the up-growth of such a body amongst institutions 
so unlike our own ; to note its various nourishment and 
well-proportioned increase in the western wilderness, into 
which it has been given wings to fly. 

Such a narrative is full also of instruction. Many are 
the grounds for self-upbraiding and humiliation which it 
brings before us ; and rich are its lessons as to the true 
treatment in religious matters of the dependent colonies of 
any Chistian people. 

Thp age of Elizabeth, fertile in great men, produced 



16 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

especially great naval heroes : all the circumstances of the 
nation favored their production. The fierce hostility of 
Spain forced upon England especial attention to her navy. 
The service of the sea had not as yet grown into a sepa- 
rate profession ; to equip and to command a ship became 
a common practice of ambitious courtiers, and even of in- 
dependent country gentlemen. The rich plate fleets of 
Spain often repaid the expense of fitting out an expedition, 
and not seldom was a goodly inheritance sold to furnish 
forth the daring adventurer. To this inducement was 
added the alluring hope of making profitable foreign set- 
tlements. The mines of Spanish America glittered be- 
fore the eyes of many an ardent Englishman ; and he 
eagerly exchanged his patrimony here for the hope of 
those golden acres which he expected to possess on the 
other side of the Atlantic, on the easy terms of paying the 
Queen the fifth part of all precious metals. 

Other causes, moreover, were at work preparing the 
way for extensive emigration. The reformation of religion 
had restored to its full vigor the national life of England, 
which even popery had not been strong enough to stifle 
utterly ; and one of the first fruits of this revival was, its 
sending forth its race beyond the narrow limits of their 
own land. This tendency to wander has always marked 
the Anglo-Saxon family ; and the formation of a middle 
class, by the diffusion of wealth and the spread of mercan- 
tile adventure, at once set the current into active motion. 
It was accordingly in the reign of Elizabeth that the first 
attempt was made to found an English colony on the 
shores of America. 

The first steps which led to the vast undertaking 
are not a little curious. Among the stirring spirits of the 
time none adventured more in maritime exploits than 
Captain Martin Frobisher. He " being persuaded of a 
new and nearer passage to Cataya^ than by Cape de 
Buona Speranza, which the Portuguese yearly use, deter- 
mined with himself to go and make full proof thereof."! 

* i. e. China. 

f Hackluyt's Collection of Early Voyages, voL iii. p. 85. 



MARTIN FROBISHER. 17 

After many delays he accordingly set forth upon the 15th 
of June, 1576, in two barques of twenty and twenty-five 
tons burden, provisioned for twelve months, on this dan- 
gerous voyage. Deserted by his second barque, this gal- 
lant man pushed on in those unknown regions, amidst 
" cruel storms of snow and haile, great islands of yce, and 
mighty deere that seemed to be mankinde, which ranne at 
him so that hardly he escaped with his life :"* until he 
discovered the straits which bear his name.f Having ad- 
vanced so far, and finding the cold still increasing, he 
turned his face homeward ; but first being desirous to 
bring thence some token of his travel, he wrought what, 
in the temper of the times, is termed by his biographer " a 
pretty policy." Knowing that the natives " greatly de- 
lighted in toyes and belles, he rang a pretty low bell, 
making signs that he would give him the same who would 
come and fetch it : and because they would not come 
within his danger for feare, he flung one bell unto them, 
which of purpose he threw short, that it might fall into 
the sea and be lost ; and to make them more greedy of 
the matter, he rang a louder bell, so that in the end one 
of them came neere the ship side to receive the belle, and 
was taken himself; for the captain being readily provided, 
let the bell fall, and caught the man fast, and plucked 
him with maine force, boat and all, into his barke ; which 
strange infidell, whose like was never seene, read, nor 
heard of before, was a sufficient witness of the captains 
farre and tedious travel. "$ 

But the native thus cruelly kidnapped was not the 
only specimen they gathered. They brought home also 
"some floures, some greene grass, and one a piece of blacke 
stone, much like to a sea-cole in coloure, which by the 
weight seemed to be some kind of metall or minerall.' , 
This was " a thing of no account at first sight, in the 
judgment of the captain ;" but after his return " it fortuned 
a gentlewoman, one of the adventurers wives, to have a 

* Hackluyt, vol. iii. pp. 67, 68, 87. 

f Frobisher's Straits, lying to the north of Cape Farewell and 
West Greenland, long. 42 W., lat. 63 E. 
X Hackluyt, vol. iii. p. 87. 



18 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in 
the fire so long, that at the length being taken forth and 
quenched in a little vinegar, it glistered with a bright 
marquesset of gold ;" whereupon, having been adjudged by 
certain goldfiners in London " to holde golde, and that very 
nobly for the quantity," it inflamed the public mind with 
notions of the great wealth of those parts ; and in the hope 
of rivalling the mines of Peru, another expedition was 
shortly afterwards set forth. 

The captain's " special commission" on this voyage was 
directed to the searching for this golden ore ; and so high 
was expectation raised, that he was admitted, before he 
sailed, into the Queen's presence ; and after " kissing her 
highness' hand, with gracious countenance and comforta- 
ble words, departed towards his charge." He sailed with 
three ships on May 26th, 1577, hoping to bring home vast 
spoils of gold from the frozen shores of the meta incognita. 
On reaching this inhospitable coast, these expectations were 
increased by their finding " spiders, which, as many affirm, 
are signes of great store of gold,"* and by the assurance 
that streams flowed into the sea beneath the frozen surface, 
" by which the earth within is kept warmer, and springs 
have their recourse, which is the only nutriment of golde 
and minerals."! 

When, therefore, the expedition reached the straits, no 
new discoveries were attempted; but having, " with five 
poore miners and the help of a few gentlemen and sol- 
diers," who labored so hard that, by " overstraining, they 
received hurts not a little dangerous," " reasonably well 
filled their shippes," they set sail with about 200 tons of 
ore, " every man therewithal well comforted," and reached 
home safely on the 23d day of September. 

The captain of the returning expedition repaired to 
Windsor, " to advertise her Majesty of his prosperous pro- 
ceedings." These were considered of so promising a cha- 
racter, that a larger expedition was soon planned, which 
was to carry out a " number of chosen soldiers and discreet 
men, who should be assigned to inhabit there." For this 

* Hackluyt, vol. iii. pp. 63, 83. t Ibid. p. 64. 



EARLY VOYAGES. 19 

purpose forty mariners, thirty miners, and thirty soldiers, 
besides gentlemen, goldfiners, bakers, carpenters, and other 
necessary persons, were embarked on board of " fifteen sayle 
of good ships," which set off from Harwich on the 31st of 
May. 

The name of one other adventurer must not be left un- 
recorded, since a higher object than the thirst of gold led 
him to face the dangers of the frozen sea. This was one 
" Master Wolfall, a learned man, appointed by her Majesty's 
council to be their minister and preacher, who, being well 
seated and settled at home in his owne countrey, with a 
good and large living, having a good honest woman to wife 
and very towardly children, being of good reputation 
amongst the best, refused not to take in hand this painfull 
voyage, for the only care he had to save soules and to re- 
form those infidels, if it were possible, to Christianitie."^ 

Frobisher again acted as admiral ; but the season was 
less favorable than it had been in former years. The straits 
were closed ; and they were " forced many times to stemme 
and strike great rocks of yce, and so, as it were, make way 
through mighty mount aines." The icebergs were so vast, 
that, under the action of the sun, their tops melted and 
poured down streams " which made a pretie brooke, able 
to drive a mill." One bark was struck by such a floating 
island, and " sunk down therewith in the sight of the whole 
fleete ;" whilst the rest "were faine to submit themselves 
and their ships to the mercy of the unmercyful yce, strength- 
ening the sides of their ships with juncks of cables, beds, 
mastes, plankes, and such like, which being hanged over- 
board, on the sides of their ships, might the better defend 
them from the outrageous sway and stroke of the said yce."t 
"The brunt," however, "of these so great and extreme 
dangers, the painfull mariners and poore miners overcame," 
and about the beginning of August, they reached their 
former harbor hi safety ; for which " they highly praysed 
God, and altogether, upon their knees, gave Him due, 
humble, and heartie thanks." Upon such occasions, 
"Master Wolfall celebrated a communion upon land, at 

* Hackluyt, voL iii. p. 116. f Hackluyt, vol. ill. p 109, <fec. 



20 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the partaking whereof was the captaine and many other 
gentlemen, and souldiers, mariners, and miners, with him. 
The celebration of the Divine mystery was the first signe, 
seale, and confirmation of Christ's name, death, and pas- 
sion ever knowen in these quarters." 

But it was soon found that the main object of the ex- 
pedition must be abandoned. The fear of death from cold 
and hunger possessed those who were selected to remain, 
and they threatened a mutiny. In the quaint language of 
their historian, they did "greatly feare being driven to seek 
sowre sallets amongst the cold cliffs ;" and it was at length 
resolved that they should defer the intended settlement 
until another year, and return home, laden with the black 
ore which promised gold. When this delusion was dis- 
covered we are not told ; but after this voyage, the "black 
ore" is never mentioned farther. 

Such were the first attempts at forming an English 
settlement in America; fruitless in themselves, and yet 
preparing the way for wiser and more successful efforts. 
Men with nobler aims than finding ore of gold were soon 
engaged in the work. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, himself a 
courtier of Glueen Elizabeth, and nearly connected with 
that "prince of courtesy," Sir Walter Raleigh, was "the 
first of our nation that caused people to erect an habitation 
and government in these countreys." Instead of seeking 
to discover mines and acquire great riches suddenly, he 
desired "to prosecute effectually the full possession of these 
so ample and pleasant countreys for the crown and people 
of England." Amidst the motives given for this his so 
" virtuous and heroical minde," are " the honor of God, 
compassion of poore infidels captived by the devil (it 
seeming probable that God hath reserved these Gentiles to 
be reduced into Christian civility by the English nation), 
advancement of his honest and well-disposed countrymen 
willing to accompany him in such honorable actions, and 
reliefe of sundry people within this realme distressed." 

These were great and noble ends, and they were not 
lightly undertaken; he knew that "the carriage of God's 
word into those very mighty and vast countreys was a high 



RELIGIOUS PURPOSE OF COLONIZATION. 21 

and excellent matter, likely to excite God's heavy judg- 
ments if it were intermeddled in with base purposes." 

His preparations were suitable to these convictions. 
He sacrificed the bulk of his fortune at home, in order to 
complete the equipment of his ships ; and gathered a nu- 
merous party of volunteers to settle this new land. The 
letters patent, which were granted to him by the Q,ueen, 
proceed upon the supposition, that the spread of the Chris- 
tian faith amongst the natives justified such settlements. 
His patent granted him "free power and liberty to discover 
all such heathen lands as were not actually possessed by 
any Christian prince or people." To his settlers were 
secured the rights of Englishmen ; whilst to himself was 
assigned the sole jurisdiction, civil and military, of the 
country within 200 leagues of his settlement, "provided 
always, that the statutes he devized should be, as near as 
conveniently might, agreeable to the laws and policy of 
England ; and provided also, that they be not against the 
true Christian faith professed in the Church of England." 

The most marked feature of the whole adventure is 
this repeated recognition of the making known the faith 
of Christ as its leading object : and far as after years 
fell below these early aspirations, and long, therefore, 
as this blessed end has been deferred, we at least who 
look across the broad Atlantic to the orderly and 
happy increase of the daughter Church, are allowed to 
witness much of its completion. Few sights can call 
more loudly for deep gratitude to God. Our own peculiar 
situation must make us watch with an unusual love the 
welfare of this body ; for, as an independent national com- 
munion, this is our only offspring ; and we are separated 
more or less from all around us. Old divisions, centuries 
ago, have parted widely the East from the West ; whilst, 
nearer home, the deep pollutions and schismatical violence 
of Rome have rudely shivered the visible unity of Christen- 
dom ; dividing us through our recovered purity of doctrine 
from all in union with herself, and leading to our separa- 
tion from the mass of the reformed communions through 
that want of apostolic order with which the clinging curse 
of her old corruption has afflicted them. There are few 



22 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

sadder thoughts for painful hearts than those which spring 
from the consideration of these multiplied divisions. Those 
who remember that their Lord's last prayer for His dis- 
ciples was, that " they all might be one," must long earn- 
estly for that time when in visible oneness, " the Holy 
Church throughout all the world shall acknowledge Him." 
They must weep for the remembrance of those early ages, 
when those that believed in Christ in different lands were 
all seen by the joints of the common episcopate to be of 
one body and in communion with each other. 

How our present divisions can be healed, and the bless- 
ing of visible unity again be restored to the Church, the 
most sanguine speculations cannot forecast. But the first 
great obstacle which bars all progress towards it is, the fear- 
ful error, that the different members of the Church must 
find their union with each other through union with the see 
of Rome. For this is, indeed, to deny the presence of Christ 
with His Church, which is her true glory : since that pre- 
sence would make her everywhere a centre to herself, and 
would unite her several parts between themselves by their 
common union with Him. This, therefore, exalts into the 
place of Christ that which they fondly name " the Holy 
See," and makes the Church the representative of an 
absent, instead of the instrument for conveying to each 
soul the mysterious presence of an unseen Saviour. 

This one delusion must prevent our ever desiring 
any union with Rome. For it is not merely that her 
creed is defaced with human additions, or her practice 
fallen and corrupt on separate points : these we might 
hope to see one by one abandoned or reformed, until the 
time might come when w r e would be again united with 
her. But this cannot be until this master-deceit is alto- 
gether thrown aside; until she shall cease to exalt the 
Church, as she designates her own communion, into the 
place of Christ, and to require oneness with it, as the con- 
dition of union with her Lord. 

Most unlike this was the union of the earliest times ; 
when, with no professed visible centre of unity, each dio- 
cese, under its own bishop, was a free and equal member 
of the common body ; and all was gathered into unity 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 23 

under one Head — their unseen but present Saviour. The 
best promise of such a restoration is in the wide-spread and 
intimate connexion of those branches of the Church which 
are reformed in doctrine, and apostolical in discipline. 

On every ground, therefore, we must needs look with 
more than common interest upon the daughter-communion 
of the West. This is "the seed the Lord hath given us ;" 
these are the children of her who was too long barren. In 
our intercourse with them we may return to the happy 
condition of primitive times, when the people of Christ, 
though in various countries and under different rules, made 
up but one body, and lived in the daily and perpetual in- 
terchange of acts of Christian brotherhood. Such a fellow- 
ship with distant countries we shall find the best argument 
against the specious show of Homan unity, and one great 
safeguard for our people against its allurements. 

In this connexion, therefore, it is full of interest to 
trace back our first national attempts at founding colonies 
to the spirit of the reformation ; to find that we owe, in 
no slight measure, our maritime supremacy and wide colo- 
nial empire to the same true-hearted martyrs who, under 
God, bequeathed to us, by their witness and their blood, 
our English Bible and reformed communion. 

The first expedition was designed in strict accordance 
with the royal charter ; but when just on the eve of 
sailing, dissension broke up the band. Nothing daunted, 
however, the gallant Sir Humphrey still set forth, with a 
small company of faithful adherents. Of the adventures 
of this voyage there is scarcely any record. Its issue was 
unfortunate ; mainly, as it is believed, from a conflict 
with the Spaniards, when, in a " dangerous sea-fight, 
many of his company were slain, and his ships therewith 
also sore battered and disabled."^ 

Five years elapsed before any fresh expedition was 
fitted out ; but in 1585 the approaching expiration of his 
patent, which was to last but six years unless some set- 
tlement was effected, spurred him on to one more effort. 
The sale of all his landed propery, with the assistance of 

* Hollinshed's Chronicles, vol. ii. fol. 1586, epist. ded. 



24 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

other wealthy adventurers, enabled him to fit up two 
ships and three small barques, with which he set forth to 
colonise the new world. He sailed with the highest ex- 
pectations. The haughty Elizabeth, though she would 
not share in the risk of the undertaking, condescended to 
bestow on him a golden anchor, in proof of her esteem ; 
and Parmenius, an Hungarian scholar, went with him to 
chronicle his voyage. He crossed the Atlantic safely; and 
having reached the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland — 
even then a fishing-station where thirty-six sail of all na- 
tions were assembled — he took possession of the territory, 
in spite of opposition, in his sovereign's name. Here a 
Saxon " mineral man," who formed part of his company, 
assured him, " on the peril of his life," that an ore he had 
discovered was nothing else than silver, which " is gene- 
rally found hi cold climates."^ But Gilbert was above 
the low temptations of avarice. His views were of a no- 
bler kind ; and, ordering his " mineral man" to guard 
sacredly the secret, he resolved to prosecute a full exami- 
nation of the southern coast. Had his success equalled 
his resolution, he might have been the first settler of the 
United States ; but the weather, the dangers of the coast, 
and the restless temper of his crews, all conspired against 
him. Deserted by two of his captains and many of his 
men, he was obliged to leave one ship behind ; and him- 
self commanding one of his barques, the Squirrel, he steered 
southward with it and two of his remaining ships. They 
were soon entangled amongst shoals and shallows ; and 
losing one ship with almost all its crew, including the 
" mineral man" and the Hungarian scholar, Gilbert was 
forced, most unwillingly, to turn his course homeward. 
His own little barque was ill suited for the violence of the 
open sea ; but he would not forsake his comrades. On 
the voyage the storms grew "more dangerous," and he 
was pressed to come on board the larger vessel. "We are 
as near to heaven by sea as by land," was the answer of 
the gallant man. But he could not save the crew he 
would not leave. That same night, as he led the way, his 

* Harris. 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 25 

companions in the large vessel saw the lights of his barque 
suddenly extinguished : she had sunk utterly with all on 
board. 

Disappointment could not damp the spirit which was 
kindled ; and Gilbert found a worthy successor in his half- 
brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. In the folio whig March 
(1584) he obtained a patent, and sent forth two well-ap- 
pointed vessels, which sailed at once to the coast of Caro- 
lina. Raleigh was too much engaged at court to lead the 
expedition ; and his commanders, who seem to have been 
men of no mark, only landed to take possession of the soil, 
and then returned to spread abroad in England the fame 
of the paradise which they had seen. 

Charmed with these descriptions, Elizabeth bestowed 
upon the new country, as a record of herself, the title of 
Virginia ; and Raleigh sent out, in the following year, 
seven vessels, manned with more than 100 colonists. But 
again the incapacity of their commanders disappointed all 
his hopes. The resources of the expedition were wasted 
in a fruitless search for mines of gold, until, at length, fif- 
teen men being left behind to guard the island of Roanoke, 
on the shores of what is now known as North Carolina, 
the rest of the intended colony returned to England. 
Amongst these were some who had noted carefully the 
natural advantages of the country they had visited, and 
their report kept alive the spirit of adventure. It is not a 
little curious to review their discoveries. One of them 
was the value of the tuberous roots of the potato ; and 
the other is thus stated by Thomas Hariot, u a man of 
learning, and a very observing person, a domestick of Sir 
Walter's, and highly in his patron's friendship." — " There 
is an herb which is sowed apart by itself, and is called by 
the natives uppowoc. The leaves thereof being dried and 
brought into powder, they use to take the fume or smoke 
thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay, into 
their stomach or head : from whence it purgeth super- 
frneous fleame, and other grosse humores, and openeth all 
the pores of the body ; . . . . whereby their bodies are 
notably preserved in health. This uppowoc is of so pre- 
cious estimation amongst them, that they thinke their gods 
2 



26 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

are marvellously delighted therewith ; whereupon some- 
time they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the pow- 
der thereon for a sacrifice : being in a storme upon the 
waters, to pacify their gods they caste seme therein and 
into the aire ; also, after an escape of danger, they caste 
some into the aire likewise : but all done wiih strange 
gestures, stamping, sometime dancing, clapping of hands, 
holding up of hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering 
therewithal! and chattering strange words and noises. V. e 
ourselves, during the time we were there, used to gacke it 
after their manner, as also since our return, and I: tve 
found many rare and wonderfull experiments of the ver- 
tues thereof : of which the relation would require a v nume 
by itself : the use of it by so many of late, men and wo- 
men of great calling, as els, and some learned physicians 
also, is sufficient witnesse."* 

One result followed from this voyage. Raleigh learned 
from it to look to agricultural produce as the staple of his 
intended colony. In the next spring a fleet of transports 
sailed, carrying out a numerous band of emigrants, who, 
with their wives and families, adventured themselves to 
settle in this new world. They landed upon the island of 
Roanoke, where, as an evil omen, they found nothing but 
the scattered bones of their unhappy predecessors. There, 
however, they founded the city of Raleigh ; and here was 
born the first Anglo-American, the grand-daughter of 
Raleigh's governor ; Virginia Dare.f 

But America was not as yet to be tenanted by the 
Anglo-Saxon race. As the summer closed, the colonists 
looked homeward with anxious longing, and began to fear 
that they had been forgotten. By passionate entreaties 

* Hacklnyt, voLiii. p. 331. Hariot. "It is related," says the 
historian of Virginia, " that a country servant of Sir Walters bring- 
ing him a tankard of ale into his study as he was intently engaged 
at his book, smoking a pipe of tobacco, the fellow was so fright- 
ened at seeing the smoke reek out of his mouth, that he threw the 
ale into his face in order to extinguish the fire, and ran down stairs 
alarming the family, and crying out his master was on fire, and, be- 
fore they could get up, would be burnt to ashes." 
t Stith's History of Virginia. 



TREATMENT OF RALEIGH. 27 

they forced their governor to an unwilling return on their 
behalf. He found England gathering up her energies to 
repel the hivincible armada. All communication with the 
new colony was for a season suspended ; and when the 
storm had cleared away, and Raleigh sent again to visit 
his settlement, no trace of the unhappy settlers could be 
found. Six times, with decreasing hopes, but with uncon- 
quered resolution, did this great man despatch expeditions, 
on the same errand, till his fortune was expended in the 
fruitless search. With the accession of King James in 
1603, fresh misfortunes crowded upon his declining years. 
On a charge of intending to change the succession to the 
crown, he was tried for high treason on most improbable 
evidence, convicted, and condemned to die. This sentence 
was not then executed ; but for twelve years, in spite of 
the friendship of Prince Henry, who indignantly declared 
that " no king but his father would keep such a bird in a 
cage." he was left to linger in the Tower. In 1616 he 
was discharged ; and, still bent upon his old plans, he 
sacrificed all his remahiing property, even to his plate, to 
fit out one more expedition to the west. Its issue was 
altogether disastrous. He lost all that he had adventured ; 
and, far beyond all other losses, he saw his eldest son fall 
during its course. A letter to his wife after this event 
strikingly displays his character ; — " I was loth to write," 
he says, " because I know not how to comfort you ; and 
God knows I never knew what sorrow meant till now. 
All that I can say to you is, that you must obey the will 
and providence of God, and remember that the Q,ueen's 
majesty bore the loss of Prince Henry "with a magnanimous 
heart. Comfort your heart, dearest Bess ; I shall sorrow 
for us both ; and I shall sorrow the less because I have 
not long to sorrow, because not long to live. The Lord 
bless and comfort you, that you may bear patiently the 
death of your most valiant son." 

The prediction which closed this letter did not wait 
long for its fulfilment. He was arrested immediately on 
landing, and first accused of exceedhig his commission in 
this voyage. This pretext, however, proved too shallow 
to justify his execution ; and as nothing less would satisfy 



28 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

his enemies, his old sentence was revived, and under that 
he suffered publicly, October 29, 1618. 

But the great work hi which he had been a pioneer 
was now about to be accomplished. The various expedi- 
tions he had manned kept up a constant intercourse be- 
tween America and England; and in 1606, anew company- 
applied for and obtained from James I. a charter for the 
settling of Virginia. The names of two knights, several 
gentlemen, and Richard Hackluyt, clerk, prebendary of 
"Westminster, appear in this document. 

This design included the establishment of a northern 
and southern colony ; and amidst "the articles, instructions, 
and orders" of the charter, provision was made for the due 
carrying out of that which is the highest end of every 
Christian colony. For it is expressly ordered, that " the 
said presidents, councils, and ministers should provide that 
the true word and service of God be preached, planted, 
and used, according to the rites and doctrine of the Church 
of England, not only in the said colonies, but also, as much 
as might be, amongst the savages bordering upon them;" 
and " that all persons should kindly treat the savage and 
heathen people in those parts, and use all proper means to 
draw them to the true service and knowledge of God. "^ 

This expedition sailed upon the 19th of December, 1606, 
and reached Cape Henry, in Virginia, on the 26th of April, 
1607. Their voyage had been tedious and dangerous ; and 
would have been absolutely ruined by internal disagree- 
ment, but for the healing influence of the Rev. Robert 
Hunt, a priest of the English Church, who, as their first 
chaplain, accompanied the expedition. Happy were they 
in the choice of this good man, who went forth to the 
strange land with all the zeal and earnestness of apostolic 
times. " Six weekes," says one of the party,! " wee were 
kept in sight of England by unprosperous Avinds ; all which 
time Mr. Hunt, our preacher, was so weake and sicke that 
few expected his recoverie : yet although wee were but ten 
or twelve miles from his habitation (the time wee were 
in the Downes), and notwithstanding the stormy weather, 

* Stith, b. ii. pp. 3*7, 40. f Purchas's Pilgrims, p. 1*705. 



EARLIEST SETTLEMENT. 29 

nor the scandalous imputation (of some few, little better 
than atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us) suggested 
against him, all this could never force from him so much 
as a seeming desire to leave the businesse, but preferred 
the service of God, in so good a voyage, before any affec- 
tion to contest with his godlesse foes, whose disastrous de- 
signs had even then overthrown^ the business, had he not, 
with the water of patience and his godly exhortations (but 
chiefly by his true devoted example), quenched these flames 
of envy and dissension." 

Fresh troubles broke out in the little band as soon as 
they arrived, when again Ins influence alone healed the 
division ; and he had the joy of administering the holy 
eucharist to the united company upon the 14th of May, 
1607, the day after their first landing. Here, on a penin- 
sula, upon the northern shore of James River, was sown 
the first seed of Englishmen, who were in after years to 
grow and multiply into the great and numerous American 
people. It was an omen for good, that almost their first 
act on reaching land was to offer unto G-od this appointed 
" sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving ;" and that amongst 
the first humble reed- thatched houses in which, under the 
name of James Town, they found shelter for themselves, 
they at once erected one to be the church and temple of 
the rising settlement. 

On their first landing, ever}i:hing smiled around them. 
They " found a country which might claim the prerogative 
over the most pleasant places in the known world, for large 
and majestic navigable rivers ; for beautiful mountains, 
hills, plains, valleys ; rivulets and brooks gurgling down 
and running most pleasantly into a fair bay, encompassed 
on all sides, except at the mouth, with such fruitful and 
delightful land. Heaven and earth seemed never to have 
agreed better to frame a place for man's commodious and 
delightful habitation, were it fully cultivated and inhabited 
by industrious people."^ 

But this bright morning was soon clouded over ; and 
the first years of the colony were, as is commonly the case, 

* Stith, b. ii. p. 48. 



30 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

years of discouragement and sorrow. All the forms of 
suffering pressed on them in turn. Their Indian neigh- 
bors slew many by treachery ; they were often disunited 
among themselves ; they depended for subsistence on the 
supplies of food they could obtain from home, and from the 
neighboring tribes, — so that any failure here (and failures 
were frequent) threw them at once into the miseries of 
famine : upon this disease followed hard, until at times 
almost all the population was mowed down. " Unwhole- 
some water," says George Percy, brother of the Earl of 
Northumberland, himself one of the sufferers, " was our 
drink ; our lodgings, castles in the air." Within ten days 
of the ships leaving them, the colonists "fell into such 
violent sickness that scarce ten amongst them could either 
go or stand. "^ Half of those who had been left perished 
before the setting in of winter. 

The fate of the colony seemed to hang upon one man. 
In spite of the bitterest envy, the merits of Captain Smith 
raised him to supreme command ; and he alone was equal 
to the gre^at emergencies of every day. His early lifef 
had fitted him for daring deeds. Trained in the war in 
which the Low Countries fought, for freedom and their 
faith, against the power of Spain, he had afterwards main- 
tained the borders of Christendom against the Turks in 
Hungary. Being taken prisoner in a skirmish, he was 
sold into slavery ; sent first to Constantinople, and thence, 
with a merciful intention, to the Crimea. Here being 
sorely oppressed by those who were charged to protect 
him, he escaped after a desperate encounter with his 
guards, and passed on horseback through the skirts of 
Russia to his old Hungarian quarters. We find him next 
in northern Africa, whence he returned to England in time 
to cast himself into the current which was then sweeping 
the most daring spirits to the unknown regions of the New 
World. In the sufferings and dangers of this expedition 
his courage never failed. He made excursions amongst 
the neighboring tribes of Indians ; he obtained supplies of 
food ; defeated hostile attacks ; sunk, or threatened to sink, 

* Stith, b. ii. p. 4*7. f Bancroft's America. 



ROBERT HUNT. 31 

the barque in which the trembling handful of remaining 
colonists would otherwise have attempted a shameful and 
impossible return ; and was the great instrument of plant- 
ing the English race in that reluctant but at length prolific 
soil. 

In all his trials he was supported by the zealous aid of 
the admirable Hunt, whose patient meekness disarmed all 
opposition, while his cheerful faith was a bright example 
to the colony. Amid its severest sufferings, it is cheering 
to find the minister of Christ in that far land repeating 
those lessons by which his forerunners in the holy office 
had so often kept alive the first faint sparks of social life. 
With unwearied patience he maintained the sinking spirits 
of his flock by the mighty influence of Christian truth, of 
which he gave a bright example in his own active faith 
and cheerful patience. Thus when, hi a fire which des- 
troyed their rising town, "the good Mr. Hunt lost all his 
library, with every thing else that he had, except the 
clothes on his back, yet no one ever heard him murmur or 
repine at it." # He seems to have entered on the work as 
one which, in the language of the first royal charter, 
" may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend 
to the glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating the 
Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness 
and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and wor- 
ship of God."f When this good man died, we know not ; 
it is merely recorded that he left his bones in that land of 
England's after-inheritance. But amongst the earliest 
settlers his mantle fell on others of like spirit. In the 
year 1610, after a period of the sorest famine, "remem- 
bered for many years by the name of the starving time, "J 
the few whom hunger and disease had spared resolved to 
quit for ever this unpropitious country. They embarked 
with all they had in four small vessels, — " none dropped a 
tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happiness ;" and 
had already fallen down the river with the tide, when 



* Stith, b. ii. p. 59. 

+ Hazard's State Papers, quoted in Hawks's Virginia, p. 19. 
}Stith,b.iiLp. 117. 



32 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

they descried the long-boat of Lord Delaware, who, with 
three ships, and a new commission, had arrived at that 
precise moment for their rescue. 

He carried back the fainting settlers to their abandoned 
town, and again took possession of the land with the offi- 
ces of our holy faith. Hunt was no more : but the new 
governor was happily attended by a chaplain ; and his 
were the first services called for by Lord Delaware. " He 
cast anchor," says one of the new-comers, " before James 
Towne, where we landed ; and our much grieved gover- 
nor, first visiting the church, caused the bell to be rung ; 
at which all such as were able to come forth of their 
houses repayred to church, which was neatly trimmed 
with the wild flowers of the country, where our minister, 
Master Bucke, made a zealous and sorrowful prayer, find- 
ing all things so contrary to our expectations, and full of 
misery and misgovernment."^ 

Bucke was fixed at James Town, and when, after a 
few years, the colony had so far taken root as to have 
spread itself into the neighboring town of Henrico, he was 
joined by Mr. "Whitaker, (son of the celebrated Dr. W. 
"Whitaker, master of St. John's College, Cambridge,) who 
was established " in a handsome church,"t which, through 
the zeal of the settlers, was one of the first buildings 
raised. Whitaker was no unworthy successor of Hunt. 
By the saint-like Nicholas Ferrar, his contemporary, he 
was honored with the title of " apostle of Virginia." " I 
hereby let all men know," writes W. Crashaw,$ in 1613, 
" that a scholar, a graduate, a preacher, well borne and 
friended in England ; not in debt nor disgrace, but compe- 
tently provided for, and liked and loved where he lived ; 
not in want, but (for a scholar as these days be) rich in 
possessions, and more in possibility, of himself, without 
any persuation (but God's and his own heart's,) did volun- 
tarily leave his warm nest, and, to the wonder of his 
kindred, and amazement of them that knew him under- 
take this hard, but, in my judgment, heroicall resolution 



* Purchas's Pilgrims, b. ix. c. 6. f Hawks's Virginia, p. 28. 
% Quoted in Hawks's Virginia, p. 28. 



POCAHONTAS. 33 

to go to Virginia, and helpe to beare the name of God 
unto the Gentiles." 

With the name of Whitaker is joined the romantic 
story of the first Indian convert, whom he baptised into 
the Church of Christ. Pocahontas, the favorite daughter 
of Powhatan, the most powerful Indian chieftain of those 
parts, then a girl of twelve years old, saved from barbar- 
ous murder Captain Smith, the early hero of this colony, 
whilst a prisoner at her father's court. For years she re- 
mained the white man's constant friend and advocate ; 
and even dared to visit, on more than one errand of 
mercy, the new settlement of James Town. After Cap- 
tain Smith's removal from Virginia, Pocahontas was en- 
snared by treachery, and brought a prisoner to the Eng- 
lish fort. But her captivity was turned into a blessing. 
She received the faith of Christ, and was not only the 
first, but one of the most hopeful of the whole band of 
native converts. Her after-life was strange. She formed 
a marriage of mutual affection with an English settler of 
good birth ; who, after a time, visited his native land, 
taking with him to its shores his Indian wife and child. 
She was received with due respect in England ; visited 
the English court (where her husband bore the frowns of 
the royal pedant James I. for having dared to intermarry 
with a princess ;) and, after winning the goodwill of all, 
just on the eve of her return, died at Grave send, aged 22, 
in the faith of Jesus. " What would have been the 
emotions," well asks the ecclesiastical historian of Virgi- 
nia, " of the devoted missionary, when he admitted Poca- 
hontas to baptism, could he have foreseen that, after the 
lapse of more than two hundred years, the blood of this 
noble-hearted Indian maiden would be flowing in the 
veins of some of the most distinguished members of that 
Church, the foundations of which he was then laying !"* 

But though thus happy in her early clergy, it must not 

be supposed that the infant Church of Virginia flourished 

without many a drawback. The mass of those who flock 

*to such a settlement will ever be, like David's followers in 

* Dr. Hawks's Memorials of the Church in Virginia, p. 28. 



34 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the desert, men of broken fortunes and ungoverned habits : 
the bonds of society are loose ; strong temptations abound ; 
and there will be much that must rebel not only against 
morals and religion, but even against civil rule. So it 
was in this case ; and to such a pitch, at one time, had 
this insubordination risen, that but for the governor's pro- 
claiming martial law, the whole society had perished 
through internal strife. 

This code of law may still be seen ; and, as is implied 
in its title — " Lawes divine, morall, and martiall, for Vir- 
ginia" — it enforced obedience to the faith of Christ, as the 
foundation of all relative obligations. There can be little 
doubt that, in that stage of society, these laws (the harsh 
penalties attached to which were never enforced) proved 
a great blessing to the colony, and prepared it for better 
days. 



CHAPTER II. 

from 1620 to 1688. 

Virginian Company — Measures of Sir E. Sandys, Nicholas Ferrar, 
and others — Churches endowed — College founded — Mr. Thorpe 
— Indian massacre — Indian conquest — Effects of the massacre — 
Virginia in the Great Rebellion — Loyalty — Love of the Church — 
Effects of Puritan rule — King Charles II. proclaimed — Enactments 
of Legislature in behalf of the Church — Popish plots suspected. 

It was the great happiness of Virginia, that the company 
who managed its affairs contained at this time men who 
looked far beyond direct commercial profit. Amongst 
these should be especially remembered the names of Sir 
Edwin Sandys, son of the Archbishop of York, and pupil 
of Richard Hooker, and of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar ;* who 
composed all their letters and instructions to their servants. 
These, and the rest who acted with them, earnestly de- 
sired to make the rising colony indeed an outpost of the 
faith. 

For this end, they endeavored to raise its internal cha- 
racter ; and many were their schemes with this intent. 
Their first care was to provide a more settled population, 
by promoting female emigration and colonial marriages. 
They laid the foundation of a college for the reception 
both of the English and Indian youth ; they set apart 
10,000 acres for its permanent support, and collected large 
sums of money, both by a king's letter and from private 
charity, to furnish endowments for a body of professors ; 
and in a new charter which they now sent out, they pro- 
vided for the settled maintenance of the colonial clergy. 
Nor were the settlers backward in the like endeavors. In 

* See Walton's Life of R. Hooker ; and Memoir of Nicholas 
Ferrar, by Rev. T. M. Macdonough. 



36 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the year 1619, when Sir Thomas Yeardley entered on the 
government, he called together the first representative 
legislature of Virginia. One of the early enactments of 
this body fixed the payment of their clergy at c£200 worth 
of corn and tobacco,^ their principal productions. One 
hundred acres were marked oft for glebes in every borough, 
for each of which the company at home provided six ten- 
ants at the public cost. They applied to the Bishop of 
London to find for them a body of " pious, learned, and 
painful ministers ;" — a charitable work in which he 
readily engaged, 

Many large-hearted Christians helped on these good 
beginnings. The Bishop of London! raised <£1000 to- 
wards the expenses of their infant college ; an unknown 
benefactor sent £500 more, to be laid out in instructing 
the young Indians in the faith of Christ. Money to be 
spent in building churches, and providing communion-plate 
for those already built, flowed in from other quarters. An 
exemplary zeal appears in all the dealings of the company. 
They impressed upon their governors that they " should 
take into their especial regard the service of Almighty 
God, and the observance of His divine laws ; and that the 
people should be trained up in true religion and virtue." 
They urged them " to employ* their utmost care to advance 
all things appertaining to the order and administration of 
divine service according to-.-the form and discipline of the 
Church of England, carefully avoiding all factious and 
needless novelties, which only tend to the disturbance of 
peace and unity." 

They besought them " to use all probable means of 
bringing over the natives to the knowledge of Gfod and 
His true religion ; to which purpose, the example given 
by the English in their own persons and families will be 
of singular and chief moment." They suggest to them 
that " it will be proper to draw the best disposed amongst 
the Indians to converse and labor with our people for a 
convenient reward, that thereby, being reconciled to a 
civil way of life, and brought to a sense of God and reli- 

* Stith, b. iii. p. 113, f Bp. King. 



IXDIAN MASSACRE.- 37 

gion, they might afterwards become instruments in the ge* 
neral conversion of their countrymen, so much desired ; that 
each town, borough, and hundred, ought to procure, by 
just means, a certain number of children to be brought up ; 
that the most towardly of these should be fitted for the 
college. In all which, pious work they earnestly require 
help and furtherance, not doubting the particular blessing 
of God upon the colony."^ 

All these good beginnings were advancing hi the settle- 
ment. The headship of the college was accepted by an 
exemplary man, Mr. George Thorpe, of good parts and 
breeding, (he had been of the king's bedchamber in Eng- 
land,) from an earnest desire of he] ping-on the conversion 
of the Indians. His heart w T as given to this work, and he 
sought to farther it in every way. He visited the Indian 
chiefs at their own haunts, to win them over to the faith 
of Christ ; and he was ever watching hi the colony to re* 
move every ground of quarrel or offence. 

The general treatment of the Indian race was mild and 
friendly. The settlers' houses and tables were open to 
them ; they often slept under the white men's roofs, and 
freely used the boats which they had built upon the vari* 
ous creeks and rivers. The two races promised to blend 
peaceably together ; whilst Mr. Thorpe and his Christian 
coadjutors looked gladly forward to the day when, by 
these Indian tribes, the knowledge of salvation should be 
spread through all the Western world. 

Yet hi the midst of this apparent calm there was 
secretly arising one of those fearful hurricanes to which 
the neighborhood of Indian life has always been exposed. 
The red tribes, whose extreme simplicity and seeming 
mildness had led the English to lay aside the commonest 
precautions, were forming secretly a wide-spread plot to 
rid their land at one blow of the strangers, whose increas- 
ing numbers seemed to make immediate action needful. 

"With that deliberate stillness of preparation which 
aggravates so fearfully the murderous onset of savage war- 
fare, the Indians sprang at once upon the whole slumber- 

*Stith 3 b. iv. pp. 194:, 195. 



38 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ing colony. Neither age nor sex, character nor station, 
acts of kindness past or present, turned aside in a single 
instance the knife or hatchet of the savage. Mr. Thorpe 
was slain and mangled in the midst of his confiding labors ; 
and within an hour, 347 men, women, and children, were 
left bleeding and dismembered corpses. Yet, terrible as 
this blow was, it would have been far more fatal but for 
the conduct of one Indian convert. His chief sent to him 
the general order, bidding him slay upon the morrow his 
unsuspecting master ; but obedience to the laws of clan- 
ship yielded, in the heart of the Christian Indian, to a 
higher obligation. As soon as the messenger, his own 
brother, had departed, he rose and warned his master of 
the meditated treachery ; thus enabling him not only to 
preserve his own house, but to prepare the inhabitants of 
James Town to expect and to resist the blow. The In- 
dians, finding their attack suspected, retreated from the 
town, and the great mass of colonists escaped. The con- 
version of one native man had saved the English settle- 
ment. 

Yet their miseries were not over. The affrighted 
colonists fled to the shelter of James Town, where famine 
soon visited their crowded ranks. When the storm had 
passed away, the whole face of the settlement was 
changed. Of " eighty plantations which were advancing 
to completion, eight only remained ; and of twenty-nine 
hundred and sixty inhabitants, eighteen hundred were all 
that were left.*" 

Still the blow had been averted ; the colony was saved ; 
and its loss was soon repaired by reinforcements from the 
mother country. But lasting evil had been done ; a spirit 
of deadly hostility sprang up between the white men and 
the Indians. To overawe all whom they did not extermi- 
nate was now their settled policy ; and all thoughts of the 
college, with its promise of mercy, was wholly laid aside 
for years. 

Some of the first records of the reviving colony are of a 
happier character. The first seven laws (amongst thirty- 



* Hawks's Virginia, b. iv. p. 1. 



LOVE OF THE CHURCH. 39 

five) passed two years afterwards, provide for the interests 
of religion. They require the erection of a house of wor- 
ship, and the separation of a burial-ground, on every plan- 
tation ; they enforce the attendance of the colonists at 
public worship ; provide for uniformity of faith and worship 
with the English Church ; prescribe the observance of her 
holy days, and of a yearly fast upon the anniversary of the 
massacre ; and enjoin respectful treatment and the payment 
of a settled stipend to the colonial clergy. 

This was almost the last act of the legislature of Vir- 
ginia whilst it continued under its early charters. Two 
years afterwards (in 1624) the crown resumed its grant, 
and the settlement became a royal colony. Although this 
change, which transferred the management of its affairs 
from the hands of Sandys and Ferrar to the interested 
courtiers of King James, had no doubt an influence upon 
the spiritual interests of the colony, and especially upon its 
missionary character, yet it produced no direct alteration 
in religious matters. The laws of the succeeding period 
continued to enforce the observance of the same duties ; 
and though their distance saved the colonists from that full 
severity of rule with which matters were administered at 
home by the Court of High Commission, yet its decisions 
were acknowledged as authority, and the harsh tone which 
was now unhappily assumed in England was felt even in 
Virginia. At the same time, the temper of the colony was 
far different from that which was spreading at home. 
Without much warmth of religion, the attachment of the 
people to their fathers' Church was general and decided. 
An attempt made from without to gather a congregation 
of the Independent character, met with but small support, 
and was easily suppressed by the authorities.^ The Puri- 
tan writers complain, in their peculiar language, that the 
governor was " a courtier, and very malignant to the way 
of the Churches ;" but the whole temper of the colony was 
with him ; and when the humors of the mother-country 
broke out into the great rebellion, Virginia continued loyal. 

* Leah and Rachell, or the two fruitful Sisters of Virginia and 
Maryland. 1656. Quoted by Dr. Hawks. 



40 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

In dissenting New England, all were fully satisfied that 
the battles which Cromwell had fought at home were the 
battles of the Lord ; and ' ' the spirits of the brethren were 
carried forth in faithful and affectionate prayers in his be- 
half."* But with this state of feeling Virginia had no 
sympathy. The expatriated cavalier fled to her as a re- 
fuge ; and with a population now multiplied to 20.000, she 
resisted Cromwell's arms. The terms on which she at 
length capitulated to superior numbers show the true 
grounds of her resolute fidelity ; for she stipulates for " the 
use of the Booke of Common Prayer for one yeare ensuing, 
the continuance of ministers in their places, and the pay- 
ment of their accustomed dues and agreements. "t Nor 
did the success of the Puritans alter these leading features, 
though it raised one of their body to the seat of governor, 
and spread a few of his adherents through the land. The 
chief evil which flowed from it was the growth of uncon- 
cern about religion. " Many places" became "destitute 
of ministers, through the people ceasing to pay their ac- 
customed dues, and manifesting great negligence in procur- 
ing religious instruction.":!: 

But the Independent form of worship found no favor in 
the colony. It is described by a contemporary as " bearing 
a great love to the stated constitutions of the Church of 
England, in her government and public worship, which 
gave us (who went thither under the late persecutions of 
it) the advantage of liberty to use it constantly amongst 
them, after the naval force had reduced the colony under 
the power (but never to the obedience) of the usur- 
pers. "§ 

Through the whole period of the great rebellion such 
remained the temper of Virginia. Eight years after his 
deposition, Sir "W. Berkeley, the ex-governor, was still 
lingering in the colony, and opening " his purse and his 
house to all the royal party, who made Virginia their re- 

* Bancroft's United States, vol. i. p. 445. 

t Hening's Virginia, — Statutes at large, p. 362. 

% Ibid. p. 378. 

§ Virginia's Cure, p. 22, quoted by Dr. Hawks. 



ENACTMENTS IN BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. 41 

fuge." # When a felon convict,! who had escaped from 
justice, was employed by Cromwell, in the neighboring 
state of Maryland, "in the holy work of rooting out the 
abominations of popery and prelacy," Virginia fearlessly 
sheltered his victims, in defiance of the usurper's censure 
of " the presumption and impiety of her interference." 
Sixteen months before the king was restored at home, he 
was proclaimed in Virginia ;} and amongst the earliest 
business brought before the colonial legislature, when it re- 
assembled under the royal commission, was the revival of 
the Church. This had already suffered greatly : of fifty 
parishes, into which the colony was now divided, the 
greater number wanted alike glebe, parsonage, church, and 
minister, as there were not above ten clergymen remaining. 
The first article in the instructions furnished to Sir W. 
Berkeley, the royal governor, recommended " the duties of 
religion, the use of the Book of Common Prayer, the decent 
repairs of churches, and a competent provision for conform- 
ing ministers." § These suggestions were acted on at once 
by the colonial legislature. Provision was made for the 
building and due furniture of churches ; for the canonical 
performance of the Liturgy ; for the ministration of God's 
word ; for a due observance of the Sunday ; for the bap- 
tism and Christian education of the young. " These," 
says the Virginian Statute Book,|) " among many other 
blessings, God Almighty hath vouchsafed to increase" into 
" a very numerous generation of Christian children born in 
Virginia, who naturally are of beautiful and comely per- 
sons, and generally of more ingenious spirits than those of 
England. "IT 

With these provisions the Church and religious matters 
were again established on their ancient basis, and proceeded 
as before ; though in the next few years, the general out- 
lines of ecclesiastical affairs at home may be traced by 
their reproduction hi the colony. 

* Churchill's Journal of Norwood, in Voyages, vol. vi. 

+ 2 Burk, 113, by the same. $ Ibid. p. US. 

§ 2 Burk, 124, in Hawks's Virginia, p. 65. 

|| Hening, vol. i. p. 336. 

■J" Virginia's Cure, p. 5, quoted in Bancroft's United States, 



42 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Strict enactments against non-conformists, then deemed 
necessary to prevent political disturbance, marked its be- 
ginning ; and were followed, under James II., by fears of 
Popish innovation. The Papists and the Indians were be- 
lieved to be in secret league against the colony ; and, in 
spite of all her loyalty, Virginia hailed, with no less joy 
than eager Protestants at home, the accession of King 
William and Queen Mary. 



CHAPTER III. 

from 1608 to 1683. 

Neighboring colonies — New-York — New Jersey — Philadelphia — 
Carolina — Maryland — New England — Its settlement— Rise of 
Puritanism in England — Emigration to Leyden, to New England 
— Piety of the early Puritans — Their hatred of Church-principles 
— Severity — Treatment of Indians — Proselyting spirit towards 
other communions. 

Hitherto the thread of our history has run along almost 
entirely with that of the single colony of Virginia. But 
from this time we must include in our notice many of her 
sister settlements : and for this purpose it will be conveni- 
ent to survey their religions posture at this time, and from 
their first beginning. 

Very different now was the condition of that great 
western continent from its state when the first settlers hi 
Virginia landed on its shores. Then, in all the great wilder- 
ness around them, the Lord of heaven was an unknown 
God. - The echoes of its vast forests had never yet awoke 
to the name of Christ ; the whole expanse was only dotted 
here and there by the scattered wigwams and hunting- 
lodges of the savage Indians. But now, along the whole 
coast, and continually more and more inland, a busy swarm- 
ing people, bearing the Christian name, were overspread- 
ing all its extent, and driving back before them the retiring 
wave of Indian life. 

Some of these settlements had been formed but little 
later than Virginia, though under a widely-different reli- 
gious influence. 

Thus the district of Pennsylvania had been settled in 
1608, one year after Virginia, by the Dutch. Whilst 
about 1627, some Swedish emigrants seated themselves at 



44 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

New- York and New Jersey, and long held possession of 
them. For, though the English laid claim, as first dis- 
coverers, to the whole northern continent, it was not till 
1664 that the Dutch governor surrendered to the summons 
of Sir R. Cave, and transferred to English rule the city of 
New Amsterdam, which, with its change of rulers, changed 
also its name, and became thenceforth New- York. Here, 
therefore, were established the religious rites and usages of 
the Dutch and Swedish presbyterian worship. 

In 1683 a different element was largely introduced, 
when Newcastle Town, with twelve miles of the surround- 
ing country, was sold by the Duke of York, to whom it 
had been granted by the crown, to William Penn, who 
built the town of Philadelphia, and peopled it with quakers. 

Thirteen years before (in 1670), Carolina had been 
granted by King Charles II. to Lord Berkeley and others, 
who established there a constitution, drawn up by the 
famous John Locke ; which, with many more peculiarities, 
professed to establish perfect religious equality amongst all 
sects, only requiring that each stripling of seventeen should 
select one for himself, and publicly enroll himself amongst 
its members. 

Bordering directly on Virginia, Maryland was settled, 
in 1633, by about two hundred English families, of Roman 
Catholic tenets, under the direction of Lord Baltimore, and 
soon grew into a flourishing community : in which, whilst 
all who professed the faith of Jesus Christ were allowed 
the free exercise of their religion, Romanism was long the 
dominant belief. So fully had the unhappy religious feuds 
of Christendom been borne across the Atlantic, to seed with 
fresh divisions the new world which lay outspread before 
the Christian settlers. 

But of all these colonies, the most important, under 
every aspect, were those which had peopled the extensive 
district known, from their occupation, by the title of New 
England. This was the great seed-plot of division in reli- 
gion ; and the history of its foundation will, therefore, re- 
quire a more detailed and particular account. 

Its first settlement was the consequence of religious 
troubles at home. The curse of popery had long lain heavy 



POPISH DARKNESS. 45 

upon England ; and had eaten out in great measure the 
very life of Christianity amongst us. It was " as with the 
people, so with the priest ;" or rather, the evil had begun 
with the priest, and had gone down to the people. When 
we look into the religious history of that period, we should 
almost conclude that, with some few noble exceptions, in 
which the absolute deadness of the system in which he 
was set forced the saint out of all system into a direct 
commerce with the unseen w T orld, Christianity had, hi the 
mass of cases, become a great scheme of formality. The 
withholding of God's word from the people, the denial of 
the master truth of our being justified by faith. only, and, 
above all, the robbing men of the presence of their only 
Saviour, by putting in His place those outward institutions 
which were intended to be signs and means of His true 
nearness to them, — all this had wrought fearfully amongst 
us ; and though, through God's goodness, there was doubt- 
less underneath this frozen surface some hidden life kept 
here and there in being, yet, for the most part, formality 
had chilled it utterly. There was no dealing with the 
consciences of men ; no treating them as individual souls, 
each one with the great mystery of spiritual life within, 
which was to be nurtured and perfected ; but empty out- 
ward forms were all ; and when once that divinely ap- 
pointed organization, which, as the channel of God's living 
grace, was intended to quicken as much as to direct the 
soul of man, was itself thus changed into a set of lifeless 
observances, it could maintain any power at all, only by 
suspending within each of its victims the true energies of 
his own inner being. Tins, therefore, became the object 
of those worldly-minded men, who sought to use Christ's 
Church as an instrument for working out their own earthly 
ends. And so long as men's consciences could be wholly 
sent to sleep, this scheme was perfact of its kind ; for it 
stilled the cravings of man's soul by the opiate of insensi- 
bility ; passing over to the priest and the system, that care 
about his own inner self, which is indeed the charge of 
each reasonable being. So long, too, as men could be kept 
hi gross ignorance, the fearful starts to which a sleeping 
conscience is subject could be set again at rest. There 



46 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

were penances, and indulgences, and remissions, and the 
showy jugglery of outward devotion, all specially directed 
to this end. And so for years had it been in England , 
prayers in which the heart or even the reason of the 
worshipper could take little or no part, had been, for the 
mass of the people, the only allowed attempt at approach- 
ing God. Formalities and shows, which, at the best, ad- 
dressed themselves to the sensitive faculties, these had been, 
the food provided for the deep and wonderful spiritual life ; 
and the reason had been abased, until it received the lying 
legends of the day, instead of that word of God which 
" giveth light unto the eyes." 

But so could it be no more after the time of Wickliffe. 
He had spoken words over these slumberers which had bro- 
ken their charmed sleep. He spoke of God, of their need 
of Him, of the Mediator between Him and them, of their 
own inner being ; and conscience had awoke, as the words 
reached their understandings. A multitude of men began 
to perceive that they were men ; that they had souls, for 
which they must themselves care ; as to them, above all, 
they were precious beyond price. They began to feel the 
need of personal religion. Strange and often ill-directed 
were their first efforts after it, as are the actions of men 
who are roused suddenly from a deep sleep ; greatly did 
they need the soothing voice and guiding hand of their 
appointed pastors. But the religious system of the papacy 
could not guide their efforts and satisfy their new-born 
wants. Its whole desire was to crush them. This it 
soon found to be impossible ; for to each one of these Lol- 
lards there was now revealed a truth, which he held as a 
reality, and which reached down to the very centre of his 
soul. It could not be torn from him ; he must be slain 
first. He could not be made to cease believing, or cease 
feeling. The knowledge of his own humanity had flashed 
upon him ; he could not forget it ; and it must be dread- 
ful to him, until he could find out its true healer. Hence 
popery strove in vain with those who were once infected 
with this new disorder ; and, finding this strife to be 
hopeless, it soon set itself to prevent its spreading, by 



THE REFORMATION, 47 

marking out for death or sufferings each one who yielded 
himself up to it. 

This strife went on long before its being was pro- 
claimed. Just as knowledge increased, so far spread the 
awakening of conscience ; and whenever this awoke, the 
struggle followed between him in whom it woke, and 
those who sought to keep it sleeping. From which there 
followed always this evil consequence, that the man in 
whom personal religion was but beginning to reveal itself 
found the Church-system under which he lived the great 
enemy of that religion. The priests, who should have 
nourished, instructed, and perfected it, he knew only as 
those who hated, reviled, and endeavored to extinguish it. 
The religions sympathies, which should have clung to the 
Church- system, and by it been raised to a goodly maturity, 
finding in it no sure stay, cast forth their tendrils upon 
strange supports ; thus becoming themselves entangled 
with evil, and separating the personal religion of the man 
from the unity and blessedness of the Church. In such a 
state men soon chose wilfully for themselves, as a part of 
their religion. They rejected ignorantly the greatest 
truths, from their dread of the errors with which they had 
been mixed. There was no blessed truth of Christ's gos- 
pel to which some deadly delusion had not been wedded ; 
and the just-opening eye, which saw men as trees walk- 
ing,, could not nicely distinguish between truth and false- 
hood ; -whilst it had been made to loathe as its worst ene- 
mies those who should have been its guides. 

For more than one hundred and fifty years this leaven 
had been working widely amongst the people, when the 
outbreak of the Reformation spread the ferment through 
the nation. For a time all went on prosperously. The 
vexed and angry minds of men were well satisfied as long 
as the work of demolition proceeded. The obstacles 
which it received in the latter part of Henry's reign came 
rather from the king than the clergy. The bishops were 
still reformers ; all at least whom the people looked to as 
bishops indeed. Accordingly, when Edward the Sixth 
became king, the work proceeded apace. The reformed 
part of the nation seemed to be united : much was yet to 



48 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

be done before religion would be purified ; but upon doing 
this they were agreed amongst themselves. Then came 
the sharp check of Mary's reign, and the strife burnt more 
fiercely than ever ; but still the reformed were all gathered 
on one side, and the popish on the other. 

So it continued while she lived ; but with the acces- 
sion of Elizabeth the whole aspect of the field was changed. 
The Reformation was established ; and immediately the 
evil seed sown heretofore sprung up and multiplied. Now 
was seen the true curse with which popery had cursed us, 
in divorcing the religious sympathies of men from that ex- 
ternal organisation which had been framed by the Lord 
specially to foster them ; in making men judges and 
teachers, because the very love of truth within them had 
made them fear to be learners and the taught. The re- 
formed began to divide amongst themselves. The Refor- 
mation had lifted up the cover which the seal of mystery 
had heretofore secured, and from the opened vessel there 
issued a spirit, vast, undefined, and fearful, on which men 
looked and trembled ; marvelling how it had been held 
before in such a narrow compass, seeing that never again 
could it be charmed into its former quietness. The prin- 
ciple of obedience had been unawares dissolved. Their 
former long separation from Roman errors, in spite of 
authority, had tainted the spirit of many of the best of our 
people, and made them self-choosing schismatics. Each 
was to judge for himself The authority of the early 
Church was nothing ; for it was confounded with the vile 
tradition which for so long a time had cheated their souls. 
The succession of the priesthood was a lie ; for the lying- 
priests of old had claimed it for themselves. The deep 
need of support and sympathy, for which God has graciously 
made provision in the communion of saints, and for which 
the heart of man craves, was wholly forgotten in the first 
fever-heat which waited upon the discovery of individual 
responsibility and individual salvation ; and the great twin 
truths which had been wedded together hi primitive times, 
which the hollowness of the popish system had severed bv 
seeking to destroy individual religion, were henceforth, it 
seemed, to strive for the mastery, — as if man's peace lay 



THE PURITANS. 49 

iii one destroying the other, and not in the perfect harmony 
of both. 

In such a state was the nation. The spasms of con- 
vulsion had followed in due course upon the" numbness of 
lethargy. All through the reign of Elizabeth, society was 
convulsed by these struggles. The party which began to 
be known every where under the title of the Puritans pro- 
fessed to aim at a more perfect or entire reformation of 
religion. The work, they thought, had been left half 
done. They were many of them men of true and deep 
piety, whose errors were the natural consequence of 
the unhappy influence under which their minds had 
grown and ripened. Their unsettled and unquiet spirits 
were the legacy which popery bequeathed us ; " tearing 
us" when it "hardly departed from us." They strove 
with all the earnestness of men who had a great reality 
at stake ; it was, as it seemed to them, for the very life 
of their own souls, and of their children's souls, that they 
contended. Yet they strove in ignorance : in seeking to 
do away the errors which had crept over them, they 
would fain have overthrown the institutions of Christ Him- 
self. Those who saw this were bound to withhold from 
them that for which they longed. And so the old feelings 
of hostility, which the abuses of her Roman garb had 
kindled, fastened now upon the Church reformed. It be- 
came again an open struggle. Law was on the side of those 
who -were defending the existing institutions ; and by the 
law the rights of truth were enforced. In such a temper 
of society it was hard to draw the line at all times be- 
tween persecution and a due resistance to the spread of 
error. The limits of toleration had been ascertained by 
neither party ; and it is no great admission to allow that 
they were now sometimes transgressed by the defenders of 
the Church. Every thing, indeed, tended to lead them 
into such a course ; they were maintaining what had 
clearly stood from the first spread of Christianity. The 
attacks now made on this must in their eyes have been 
manifest impiety. They were led on, moreover, by ano- 
ther influence. The Puritans were made bad subjects by 
the very same qualities which made them bad Churchmen. 
3 



50 a:\iericax church. 

The secular arm. therefore, was ready to strike in its own 
quarrel, and glad to take advantage of the first whisper of 
the cause of religion. It was not now for toleration sim- 
ply that the Puritans were striving. During their exile 
in the reign of Mary, they had learned all the lessons 
taught by Calvin and John Knox. Their consciences 
compelled them, not only to practice themselves what 
they deemed right, but, at all hazards, to enfore this prac- 
tice upon others also. " The Puritans of this age," says 
the gentle Fuller,^ " were divided into two ranks : some 
mild and moderate, contented to enjoy their own conscience ; 
others fierce and fiery, to the disturbance of the Church 
and State ;" " accounting every thing from Rome which 
was not from Geneva, they endeavored to conform the 
government of the English Church to the presbyterian 
reformation." 

It was Elizabeth's maxim, that the first of these 
classes should be conciliated to the uttermost. And hence 
Cartwright, Travers, and all the great leaders of the 
party, were at this time allowed to act as beneficed or 
licensed preachers. 

But when " causes of conscience exceed their bounds, 
and grow to be matters of faction," to use the words of 
Sir F. Walsingham,t i; the queen judged them to ' lose 
their nature,' and become such that they should be dis- 
tinctly punished, though colored with the pretences of 
conscience and religion." How completely this limit had 
been reached may easily be seen. Five hundred Puritans, 
" all beneficed in the Church of England," and styled by 
themselves " useful preachers," resolved, in 1586, "that 
since the magistrate could not be induced to reform the 
discipline of the Church, that therefore, after so many years 
waiting, it was lawful to act without him, and introduce 
a reformation in the best manner they could." 

The language of their ruder partisans may yet be read 
in the pages of Martin Mar-prelate and his fellows. They 
do not speak the tone of men trembling and groaning un- 
der dominant oppression: ' ; Our bishops," says they, " and 

* Church Hist, book ix. p. T6. f Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. ii, 



THE PURITANS, 51 

proud, popish, presumptuous, paltry, pestilent, and perni- 
cious prelates, are usurpers. They are cogging and cozen- 
ing knaves. The bishops will lie like dogs; impudent, 
shameless, wainscot-faced bishops. Your fat places are 
anti-clmstian; they are limbs of anti-christ,"* &c. " Our 
lord bishops, as John of Canterbury, with the rest of such 
swinish rabble, are petty anti-christs, petty popes, proud 
prelates, enemies to the Gospel, and most covetous, 
wretched priests."! And the aim of this reviling was 
openly declared : "The Puritan preachers would have all 
the remnants and relics of anti-christ banished out of the 
Church, and not so much as a lord bishop (no, not his 
grace himself,) dumb minister, (no, not dumb John of Lon- 
don himself) non-resident, archdeacon, abbey-lubber, or 
any such loiterer, tolerated in our ministry." 

Tins is not the language of men seeking toleration under 
religious scruples, but of coarse and open assailants of ex- 
isting institutions. 

Nor was this the mere vulgarity of uneducated ribaldry. 
It is true that there were many better men amongst the 
Puritans ; but it was such tempers as these against which 
the ruling powers were forced to take up arms. And these 
were not the lowest of their faction. Martin Mar-prelate, 
it was known, came from their leaders' pens ; and that 
great intellect and station could not heal the bitterness of 
faction, may be seen somewhat later in the prose works of 
John Milton himself. With less coarseness of tongue, but 
certainly with no less rancor, he dooms the bishops of the 
English Church, " after a shameful life in this world, to 
the darkest and deepest gulf of hell ; where, under the 
despiteful control, the trample and spurn, of all the other 
damned, who in the anguish of their torture shall have no 
other ease than to exercise a ravins: and bestial tvrannv 
over them, as their slaves and negroes, they shall remain 
in that plight for ever, the basest, the lowermost, the most 
dejected, most underfoot, and down-trodden vassals of per- 
dition, "f 

* Strvpe's Whitgift, vol. L p. 570. 

t Ibid, p. 353. 

\ Conclusion of Milton's treatise on Reformation, i. 274. 



52 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

It is not, therefore, wonderful if Churchmen, who, on 
their part, had a strong perception of the contrary truth, 
let the arm of law fall heavily upon those who numbered 
in the ranks of their supporters such troublesome disputants. 
The true source of the evil was in that former unfaithful- 
ness of those who should have been the watchmen and 
stewards of the Lord, which had made the Church hateful, 
not to infidels, because they abhorred religion, but to earnest 
believers, because they loved it, and the memory of which 
made many good men still her enemies, though she was 
now wholly in the right. The points for which she con- 
tended were the very guards and instruments of the truth ; 
they could have wounded no sound conscience. But " op- 
pression, which maketh a wise man mad," had held a long 
rule ; men's consciences had become festered and angry, 
and could not bear the light touch of lawful authority. 
The time for the full working of this evil was not indeed 
yet come ; but all through the reign of Elizabeth it was 
gathering strength, and injuring more and more the hearts 
of those whom it infected. In the following reign it was 
scarcely repressed by the timid watchfulness of James ; and 
in his son's time it burst forth for a while triumphant. 
Puritanism was then seen in its maturity ; and its violence 
and persecution far exceeded any excess of rigor which 
could be charged to the adherents of the contrary side. If 
some meeting-houses had been heretofore suppressed, we 
know not of one which, like our cathedrals, was made a 
stall for horses. If hatred to Puritanism sharpened the 
edge of that sentence which, for a malicious libel on the 
queen, deprived Prynne of his ears,^ Puritanism could not 
slake its vengeance till it beheaded Laud, If Puritans 
were forced by Q,ueen Elizabeth to be present in their 
parish-church, the Parliament of 1645 sentenced to one 
year's imprisonment any one who for the third time made 
use, publicly or privately, of the Book of Common Prayer. 
But the earlier stages of the stru^^le are those with which 



* Prynne himself confessed afterwards, that if, when Charles took 
his ears, he had taken his head, he had given him no more than his 
due. 



PURITANISM. 53 

we have to do. In the reigns of Elizabeth, and James 
the First, the Puritans strove for the mastery in vain ; the 
law enforced conformity ; they must attend their parish- 
church. The ministrations of their chosen teachers were 
impeded.. The cause of truth, of Christ's Gospel, and of 
their souls, seemed to them in peril ; they looked this way 
and that for deliverance ; they could not rest as they were ; 
they believed that it was unlawful to submit to " the base 
and beggarly ceremonies"^ (as they did not fear to term 
them) of the Church of England, and were therefore bent 
on bringing in a ''reformation cut or shapen after the man- 
ner of Embden or Geneva."! 

However mistaken was their zeal, they gave abundant 
proof of its sincerity. Finding it impossible to follow out 
their own convictions in their native land, they were con- 
tent to forsake it rather than violate what they deemed 
the dictates of conscience. They resolved, therefore, on a 
voluntary expatriation ; and cast their eyes first on Hol- 
land, which favored their peculiar views, as the land of 
their pilgrimage. But this step could not easily be taken ; 
the consent of the civil magistrate was then necessary for 
such an emigration, and this they were not likely to obtain. 
Accordingly they endeavored to fly the country secretly. 
In Lincolnshire especially, a numerous band gathering to- 
gether their goods and families, in places which they 
thought likely to escape notice, embarked on board a foreign 
transport they had hired. They were, however, watched, 
and their embarkation was prevented ; nor was it till after 
various attempts and many hardships, that " at length 
they all got over : some at one time, and some at another ; 
some in one place, and some in another." Being " come 
into the Low Countries," they settled first at Amsterdam ; 
though " they mette together againe with no small rejoic- 
ing," yet had they still much to endure. They found there 
" fortified cities strongly walled ; they heard a strange and 
uncouth language, and beheld the different manners of the 



* MS. History of the Plantation of Plymouth, <kc, — in the Fulham 
Library. 
f Ibid. 



54 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

people with their strange fashions and attires, all so much 
differing from that of their plain country where they were 
"bred, and so long lived." Before long, moreover, they saw 
" the grim and grisly face of povertie coming upon them 
like an armed man with whom they must buckle and en- 
counter." Under the prudent guidance of Mr. Robinson, 
a man of great parts, who came with them as their first 
pastor, they surmounted these difficulties, and were soon 
established in tolerable comfort at Ley den. There they 
remained twelve years ; but many things prevented their 
taking root amongst the Dutch. Though their industry 
and honesty, with the interest which attached to their po- 
sition, had secured for them sufficient employment to pro- 
vide for their absolute necessities, yet in that shrewd and 
populous nation they found themselves continually fore- 
stalled by the natives of the country. They had been led 
to take a part in the religious controversies which divided 
that people ; and the skill and readiness hi debate, which 
gamed for Mr. Hobinson the highest applauses from Polyan- 
der and the Calvinists, must have equally displeased the 
friends of Episcopius, the champion of the opposite side. 
The truce also, which had now lasted twelve years, between 
the Netherlands and Spain, was just expiring; and if they 
remained at Leyden. they knew not how soon they might 
be involved in all the miseries of Avar. 

Other motives were supplied by their peculiar religious 
views. Although, in the main, the congregations round 
them were formed upon their own model, yet there were 
many tilings with which they were not satisfied. The 
Puritans enforced the duty of observing the Lord's^ day with 
the formal strictness of the Jewish Sabbath, and they feared 
the effect upon their children of the opposite example of the 
Dutch. Already the strictness of their parental rule had 
been relaxed through the necessity of their position. " Many 
of their children (by the great licentiousness of youth in that 
country and the manifold temptations of the place) were 
drawn away into extravagant and evil courses, getting the 
reigns off their necks .... so that they saw their posteritie 
would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted."^ 
* Fulliam ms. History. 



PlAMS CP PUHITAN EMIGRATION. 55 

Tliey longed, too, for something more than toleration ; they 
desired to set up churches after their own model of perfec- 
tion, and to watch their growth and progress. 

The temper of the times naturally turned their thoughts 
to the new world ; already many adventurers had emigrated 
thither. There they might unfold their present small be- 
ginning into a strong people and a pure communion. Who 
could be more fitted to encounter the necessary hardship of 
such an enterprise ? Already they were " well weaned 
from the delicate milk of their mother country, and enured 
to the difficulties of a strange and hard land, which yet in 
good part they had by patience overcome."* The example 
of Abraham seemed set before them as a model: and at 
length, after many misgivings, they resolved upon crossing 
the Atlantic. Their thoughts were first turned to Virginia. 
and they opened a negotiation with the company which 
then governed that colony. Several letters passed upon 
the subject ; and in Sir Edwin Sandys they found one who, 
whilst he firmly upheld what he believed to be the truth 
of Christ, was ready to befriend their persons, and to con- 
cede a full license to their weak consciences. They ac- 
kn pledge, in " their owne and their churches name, his 
singular love hi this weighty business/' and trust them- 
selves "to the care of his love and the counsel of his wis- 
dom.'"' 1 : 53 still interposed : the king could not '' ; be 
wrought upon'' to grant them a charter under his seal, 
though he was willing " to connive at them, and not molest 
them, provided they carried themselves peaceably/' This 
caused for a time ; " a damp hi the business, and some dis- 
traction ;" but at length they comforted themselves with 
bought, that even if they had obtained their charter, 
yet if i; afterwards there should be a purpose or desire to 
wrong them, though they had a seale as broad as the 
house-floor, it would not serve their turn, for there would 
be means found to recall or reverse it." On this persua- 
sion they at length resolved on settling in the neighborhood 
of the Virginian colony, under a patent granted by that 
colony. It was also determined that a part only of their 

* FuDiam ms. History. 



56 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

body should proceed at once, leaving its weaker members 
to follow when the settlement was formed. 

About the 22d July, 1620, all was ready. They had 
one ship of near sixty tons, to transport them to England, 
where they were to join another of 180 tons, and proceed 
at once to America. Before setting sail they had a day of 
" solemn humiliation, their pastor taking his text from 
Ezra viii. 21, upon which he spent a good part of the day." 
They were afterwards " accompanied with most of their 
brethren out of the city unto Delft Haven, where the ship 
lay ready to receive them;" "so they left," says one of 
their party, " the goodly and pleasante citie which had 
been their resting-place nere twelve years ; but they knew 
that they were pilgrimes, and looked not much on those 
things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest 
countrie, and quieted their spirits." It was an affecting 
parting between these world-pilgrims and their brethren 
left behind, and even drew " tears from sundry of the Dutch 
strangers that stood on the key as spectators ;" "but the 
tide (which stays for no man) calling them away that were 
thus loath to depart, their reverend pastor falling downe 
on his knees, (and they all with him,) with waterie cheeks 
commended them, with most fervent e prayers, to the Lord 
and His blessing ; and then, with mutual embraces and 
many tears, they tooke their leaves one of another, which 
proved to be the last leave to many of them." ^ 

They had a prosperous voyage to London ; but many 
more troubles were yet before them. On the 5th of August 
the two ships sailed in company, but as they dropped down 
the Channel the smaller ship leaked so greatly, that they 
were forced to put in to Dartmouth to refit. After losing 
much time there in the necessary repairs, they again set 
sail ; but after proceeding about " a hundred leagues with- 
out the Land's End," the same cause sent them back to 
Plymouth. Here, after consultation, they determined to 
leave behind, for the present year, the faulty ship and part 
of their company. There were many willing to be left, 
some " out of feare and discontent, others as unfite, in re- 

* Fulkam ms. History. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE VOYAGE. 57 

gard of their owne weakness and charge of many yooge 
children, to bear the brunte of this hard adventure." Thus, 
says their chronicler, " hke Gedions armie this small number 
was devided ; as if the Lord, by this worke of His Provi- 
dence, thought these few too many for the great worke He 
had to doe." The letter of one of the leaders in the expe- 
dition, written whilst they lay at Dartmouth, gives a lively 
picture of one of those who stayed willingly behind at Ply- 
mouth, out of the " feare he had conceived of the ill success 
of the voiage." " Our pinass will not cease leaking, els I 
thinke we had been halfe waye at Virginia : our viage 
hither hath been as full of crosses as ourselves have been 
of crokedness. We put in here to trimme her ; and I thinke 
if we had stayed at sea but three or four houres more, shee 
would have sunke right downe. Shee is as open and leakie 
as a seive ; there was a borde a man might have pulled off 
with his fingers, two foote longe, where the water came in 
as at a molehole. Oar victuals will be halfe eaten up, I 
thinke, before wee go from the coast of England. I see 
not how we shall escape even the gasping of hunger-starved 
persons. Poore W. King and myselfe doe strive dayly who 
shall be meate first for the fishes." 

All this does not bespeak in its writer the bold heart 
which such an adventure needed, especially when we learn 
that the fear of the party had been practised on by artful 
men as to the apparent danger of the lesser vessel. But 
there were amongst them some braver spirits ; and, after a 
fatiguing voyage, one ship's company landed on the 9th of 
November, wearied and exhausted, on Cape Cod. The 
record of this landing is still kept alive in an engraving on 
the certificate of membership, as used at this day by the 
" Pilgrim Society" of Plymouth.* They had been brought 
thus far to the north by the treachery of their captain, f 
who had been bribed by their Dutch neighbors to leave the 
more promising banks of the Hudson open for an intended 
colony of their own. On this inhospitable shore winter 
soon set in upon them with extreme severity. In the depths 

* Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 566. 
f Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book i, p. 7. 
3* 



58 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of its frosts, however, they explored enough of the coast to 
fix upon another site for their intended settlement ; and 
finding a commodious harbor at the bottom of the bay, they 
all removed thither, and laid the first foundation of the 
future town of Plymouth. Here their first winter was 
spent in the endurance of hardships which, wore away 
" more than half their whole company ,"• so that scarcely 
fifty lived to the ensuing spring. The spot where the dead 
were laid still maintains the name of Burial Hill. It was 
ploughed up and sowed by the earliest colonists, lest its 
graves should make their fearful losses known, and so in- 
vite the hostile violence of the surrounding Indians. 

In the course of the next year their numbers were in- 
creased by a new detachment of their friends from Hol- 
land ; but their supplies were yet scanty, and their perils 
extreme. Still, however, they held to their purpose, and 
a stir was now made for them at home. In 1624, several 
leading Puritans were interested in their undertaking. In 
1627 they had purchased for them from the company, in 
whom title to the land was vested by the crown, " that 
part of New England which lyes between a great river 
called Merrimack, and a certain other river there called 
Charles River, in the bottom of the Massachusetts Bay." 
And in the following year a royal charter was granted to 
them, with power to elect yearly their own magistrates ; 
and the intention was openly avowed of " letting the non- 
conformists, with the grace and leave of the king, make a 
peaceable secession, and enjoy the liberty and the exercise of 
their own persuasions about the worship of the Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

The grant of this charter greatly helped on their cause ; 
and for the next twelve years " many very deserving 
persons transplanted themselves and their families to New 
England,"* amongst whom were " gentlemen, of ancient 
and worshipful families, and ministers of the Gospel then 
of great fame at home, and merchants, husbandmen, and 
artificers, to the number of some thousands." It was 
reckoned that 198 ships were employed, at a cost of 

* Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book I 



PURITAN SETTLEMENTS- 59 

192,000/., to carry over these emigrants, who for these 
"twelve years kept sometimes dropping, and sometimes 
flocking into New England." In the spring and summer 
of 1630. Winthrop, who must be considered as the founder 
of New England, arrived with a fleet of seventeen vessels, 
and about 1500 men, some of whom, like himself, were 
persons of condition, education, and fortune. Without this 
reinforcement, to all human appearance, the settlement at 
Plymouth* would have proved abortive. By the year 
1640, the settlers were supposed to have amounted to 4000 
persons, who are said hi fifty years to have multiplied into 
100,000. As their numbers increased, they branched out 
into the surrounding country, until, in 1637, the neighbor- 
ing territory of Connecticut was occupied by men of the 
same sentiments : and, ' : along the seacoasts of that plea- 
sant bay" began another colony, which soon " surprised 
the sight with several notable towns," and even extended 
itself to Long Island, following strictly in religious matters 
the " use of Massachusetts." To the north, also, and east, 
New Hampshire and the state of Maine began to receive 
some straggling settlers, who adopted almost the same 
model in religions matters. 

Many trials waited on these little bands, which, "toil- 
ing through thickets of ragged bushes, and clambering over 
crossed trees, made their way along Indian paths" to the 
new sites on which they fixed. " The suffering settlers 
burrowed for their first shelter under a hill-side. Tearing 
up roots and bushes from the ground, they subdued the 
stubborn soil with the hoe, glad to gain even a lean crop 
from the wearisome and imperfect culture. The cattle 
sickened on the wild fodder ; sheep and swine were de- 
stroyed by wolves ; there was no flesh but game. The 
long rams poured through the insufficient roofs of their 
smoky cottages, and troubled even the time for sleep ; yet 
the men labored willingly, for they had their wives and 
little ones about them ; the forest rung with their psalms, 
and. ' the poorest people of God in the whole world, they 

* Plymouth and Massachusetts remained separate colonies, till, on 
the accession of William and Man', a new charter was granted, 
which included Plymouth as a part of the province of Massachusetts, 



60 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

were resolved to excel in holiness.' Such was the infancy 
of a New-England village."^ 

Thus, then, were these wide districts first settled, and 
with their very earliest texture were thus interwoven the 
threads of congregational dissent. The name of Indepen- 
dents they eschewed. f Their especial features were a re- 
jection of episcopacy, of the use of " common prayer," and 
of the ceremonies of the Church. Each congregation of 
worshippers, united by a willing bond or covenant, sub- 
mitting themselves to a pastor of their own choice, and 
exercising discipline, through certain ruling elders, accord- 
ing to what they quaintly termed " the scriptural platform," 
formed a separate " church," which could have no alliance, 
save that of friendly alliance, with other "churches," nor 
own any submission except to their common Lord. For 
this, which they esteemed a more perfect reformation, they 
had left their native land, and become settlers in the wild- 
erness. 

It is pleasant to believe that there were amongst them 
many whose whole hearts were governed by a strong per- 
sonal religion ; whilst it is as plain that their consciences 
were often scrupulous, and their self-will in religion great. 
Of their earnest piety abundant records are preserved. It 
was their first care, when they settled in the west, to join 
themselves together in " a covenant with God," and accord- 
ing to their forms, "to constitute themselves a Christian 
Church." The lives and writings of their early magis- 
trates and governors are full of proofs of personal religion. 
Nothing but conscious uprightness could have enabled a 
father to write to a grown-up son as John Winthrop, go- 
vernor of Massachusetts, wrote to his son, who filled after- 
wards the same office in Connecticut. " You are the chief 
of two families. I had by your mother three sons and 
three daughters, and I had with her a large portion of out- 
ward estate. These now are all gone. . . You only are 
left to see the vanity of these temporal things, and to learn 
wisdom thereby ; which may be of more use to you, through 

* Bancroft's United States, vol. i. p. 382. 
t Cotton Mather's Magnalia. 



JOHN WlNTHROP. 61 

the Lord's blessing, than all that inheritance which might 
have befallen you. . . . My son, the Lord knows how dear 
thou art to me, and that my love has been more for thee 
than for myself. But I know that thy prosperity depends 
not on my care, nor on thy own, but upon the blessing of 
our heavenly Father : neither doth it on the things of this 
world, but on the light of God's countenance, through the 
merit and mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you 
weigh things aright, and sum up all the turnings of divine 
Providence together, you shall find great advantage. The 
Lord hath brought us to a good land ; a land where we 
enjoy outward peace and liberty, and, above all, the bless- 
ings of the Gospel, without the burden of imposition in 
matters of religion. Many thousands there are who would 
give great estates to enjoy our condition. Labor, therefore, 
my son, to increase our thankfulness to God for all His 
mercies to thee, especially for that He hath revealed His 
everlasting good will to thee in Jesus Christ, and joined 
thee to the visible body of His Church in the fellowship of 
His people, and hath saved thee in all thy travels abroad 
from being infected with the vices of those countries where 
thou hast been (a mercy vouchsafed but unto few young 
gentlemen travellers,) Let Him have the honor of it who 
kept thee. . . . And therefore I would have you to love 
Him again, and serve Him, and trust Him for the time to 
come. Love and prize that word of truth which only 
makes known to you the precious and eternal thoughts of 
the Light inaccessible. Deny your own wisdom, that you 
may find His ; and esteem it the greatest honor to lie under 
the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ crucified. ... In all 
the exercise of your gifts and improvement of your talents, 
have an eye to your Master's end more than your own, 
and to the day of account, that you may then have your 
quietus est, — -even ' Well done, good and faithful servant.' 
My last request unto you is, that you be careful to have 
your children brought up in the knowledge and fear of 
God, and in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. This will 
give you the best comfort of them, and keep them free 
from any want or miscarriage ; and when you part from 



62 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

them, it will be no small joy to your soul that you shall 
meet them again in heaven."^ 

Such a spirit as this, carried out, as it seems to have 
been, for ten years of renewed elective government over 
the tottering feebleness of the infant colony of Massachu- 
setts, might well earn for Winthrop the title which, in the 
manner of his times, old Mather bestows upon him, of the 
" New-English Nehemiah." Yet amidst this early promise 
we may find traces of those evils which multiplied at home 
so rankly in the great rebellion ; as if to show how short- 
lived and uncertain is the growth of personal religion, when 
taken from the shelter and protection of the Church. There 
are many proofs that these New-England settlers were 
amongst the very movers in those after-troubles. The no- 
torious Hugh Peters (who preached afterwards in England 
in favor of the murder of th§ kinof) was a pastor at Boston ; 
and there seems no good reason for doubting that Sir Ar- 
thur Haselrig, Mr. Hampden, and Cromwell himself, were 
intercepted on the Thames embarking for these colonies : 
Sir Henry Vane the younger, touching there in 1636, was 
immediate^ elected governor of Massachusetts ; and at the 
close of the rebellion no fewer than three of the regicides 
found shelter in New-England. 

Neither here, indeed, nor in England had the Puritans 
as yet worked out all the consequences of their tenets. At 
Massachusetts they at first declared that they "were not 
separatists — that they did not separate from the Church 
of England ;' ? f and when some who joined them thought 
to recommend themselves by "holding forth a profession 
of separation from the Church of England/ % they were 
" stopped forthwith" by the New-England pastors. But 
this was only the coyness of early schism. They were, in 
truth, most hostile to her; holding the "composition of 
common-prayer and ceremonies to be a sinful violation of 
the worship of Grod;"§ "and archbishops, bishops, arch- 
deacons, officials, and the like, to be humane creatures, 
mere inventions of man, to the great dishonor of Christ 

* Cotton Mather's Magnalia, book ii. cap. 11. 
f C. Mather, book i. c. 4. J lb. c. hi. 

§ lb. ut supra. 



PURITAN SPIRIT. 63 

Jesus ; plants not of the Lord's planting, which all should 
certainly be rooted up and cast forth. "^ Some, indeed, 
went farther still. The fundamental principles of the 
Newhaven settlement declared, ' : that all vicars, rectors, 
deans, priests, and bishops, are of the devil; are wolves, 
petty popes, and anti-christian tyrants."! "It is a heinous 
sin," they declared, "to be present when prayers are read 
out of a book by a vicar or bishop :" nay, they go on to 
say, " that the lovers of Zion had better put their ears to 
the mouth of hell, and learn from the whispers of the de- 
vils, than' read the bishops' books, "t When the overthrow 
of the Church of England was made known in the colonies, 
their exultation broke forth in such rhapsodies as these : 
" This is the Lord's doing, and ought to be marvellous in 

our eyes I have snared thee, and thou art taken, 

Babylon, i. e. bishops These proud Anakims are 

throwne downe, and their glory laid in the dust. The 
tiranous bishops are expelled, their courts dissolved, their 
canons forceless, their service cashiered, their ceremonies 
useless and despised ; and the proud and profane supporters 
and cruel defenders of these, marvellouslie overthrowne : 
and are not these greate things ? who can deny it ?"§ So 
strong, indeed, were their principles, that even their zeal- 
ous Puritan eulogist avows his " fear that the leaven of 
that rigid thing they call Brownism has prevailed some- 
times a little of the farthest in the administrations of this 
pious people ;"|| and complains of "religion being like to 
die at Plymouth, through a libertine and BroAvnistic^j spirit 
prevailing amongst the people."** 

The want of the appointed band of unity was already 
broadly seen in the religious state of the settlements. The 

* A Platform of Church Discipline, agreed upon at the synod at 
Cambridge, New England, cap. vii., 1649. 

f History of Connecticut, 1781. % Ibid. 

§ Fulharn mss. || Magn. b. ii. c. 2. 

^[Robert Browne was the founder of the "Independent" Dis- 
senters, who long bore the name of Brownists from him. He is des- 
cribed by Neal (i. 375, 376), the dissenting historian, as being a " fiery, 
hot-headed young man;" "idle and dissolute" in middle life; and in 
old age, "poor, proud, and very passionate." He died in 1630. 

** Magn. b. i. c. 3. 



64 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Puritan magistrates watched with terror the working out 
of their own opinions in the unlimited divisions of the peo- 
ple. Even in their judgment " the cracks and flaws of the 
new building portended a fall."* On the other side they 
were reproached as being "priest-ridden magistrates,"! 
under " a covenant of works." The Presbyterian ministers 
were greeted with the same epithets which had been be* 
stowed upon the clergy at home; they were "the ushers 
of persecution, "$ " popish factors," and the like. In action 
also their own principles were turned against them. Roger 
Williams, a "zealous young minister, with precious gifts." 
headed the opposition of a faction to the "control over opin- 
ion," which his brethren attempted to maintain. He was 
willing to die for his opinion, that " none be accounted a 
delinquent for doctrine." It was in vain that he was driven 
out to become the founder of Rhode Island ; his wildest 
opinions were enlarged by Anne Hutchinson, "a woman of 
such admirable understanding and ' profitable and sober 
carriage,' that she won a powerful party in the country. "$ 
She not only " weakened the hands and hearts of the peo- 
ple towards the ministers," || but set aside all fixed forms of 
faith and laws of conduct, with the pretence of being guided 
by "a new rule of practice, by immediate revelations. "fl" 
This she explained to mean, not a special revelation "in 
the way of miracle," but merely that the impression of his 
own mind was to every one the true rule both of belief and 
practice. She was succeeded by Gordon, who, with his 
followers, openly inveighed against the whole body of colo- 
nial ministers, and in his dreamy reveries, proclaimed that 
there was no heaven save in the hearts of the good, nor 
any hell but in the mind. The Quakers also soon sprung 
up in this congenial soil ; and as she wandered about u to 
build up their friends in the faith," Mary Dyar proclaimed 
against the New-England pastors her " woe is me for you, 
ye are disobedient and deceived." 

* Shepherd's Lamentation, quoted by Bancroft. 

f Coddington, in ditto. \ Ditto. 

§ Bancroft. 

J Winthrop, in Hutch., quoted by Bancroft. 

•Jf Welde, in Bancroft, cap. ix. 



PURITAN INTOLERANCE. 65 

It was in vain that the whole civil power attempted to 
check the growth of these multiplying sects ; it was in vain 
that the puritan magistrates used without scruple the very 
arms of which at home they had made the loudest com- 
plaints. Like the Independents hi England, they had 
learned from their own sufferings no lesson of toleration to- 
wards others. " To say that men ought to have liberty of 
conscience," affirms one of their great authorities, "is 
impious ignorance."^ " Religion admits of no eccentric 
notions." Banishment was their first and favorite remedy. 
" For the security of the flock we pen up the wolf; but a 
door is purposely left open, whereby he may depart at his 
pleasure."! This was enforced on all who differed from the 
reigning sect. 

Two brothers, Church-of-England men, a lawyer and a 
merchant, who had joined unawares the settlement of Sa- 
lem, finding how matters stood, ventured to " uphold" in 
their own house, " for such as would resort unto them, the 
Common-Prayer worship."} But such an enormity they 
were not long suffered to continue ; for " a disturbance 
arising amongst the people upon this occasion," the bro- 
thers were called before the magistrates, and "so handled 
as to be induced to leave the colony forthwith." Nor was 
it Churchmen alone of whom they thus rid themselves. 
They dealt the like measure to all sectaries who were not 
of their own persuasion. " No food," runs one of their brief 
laws; "and lodgings shall be allowed a Quaker, Adamite, 
or other heretic. "§ It was judged sufficient reason to ex- 
pel a household from the town of Salem, that its head was 
by confession " a dam-ned Quaker." Where banishment 
failed of effecting its purpose, they were not slow in using 
other methods. Fines, imprisonments, stripes, and even 
death itself, were amongst their remedies; for " God for- 
bid," say they, "that our love of truth should be so cold 
that we should tolerate errors." Convicted Anabaptists 
were fined twenty pounds, or " whipped unmercifully ;" 
" absence from the ministry of the word" was treated in 

* "Ward, quoted by Bancroft, cap. x. f Norton in Bancroft. 

X Magn. b. i. c. 4. § Blue Code, No. 13. 



66 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

like manner by men whose main complaint in England 
had been, that they were compelled to be present at their 
parish church. But of all sects, the Quakers were the 
most severely handled. Of them Cotton Mather gravely 
writes, when treating of the troublers of the land : " There 
have been found amongst us some unhappy sectaries — 
namely, Quakers and Seekers, and such other energu- 
mens."* As such they were treated. Fines were levied 
on any who harbored the "accursed sect ;"f whilst 
" Friends" themselves were sentenced, after the first con- 
viction, to lose one ear ; after the second, another ; and 
after the third, to have the tongue bored through with a 
red-hot iron. " If any person/' say the Puritan laws. 
" turns Quaker, he shall be banished, and not suffered to 
return on pain of death. "| Nor was this an inoperative 
statute. Many Quakers in New England were put to 
death for the profession of their faith, until an order from 
King Charles II. brought this violence to a close. § 

Such was the religious liberty of Presbyterian New- 
England twenty years after the true doctrine of toleration 
had been carried out in -Maryland. But this tone of harsh- 
ness pervaded the Puritan character. It dictated the 
" Blue Code" of Connecticut! I (so named, according to pro- 
bable conjecture, by the inhabitants of the neighboring 
settlements from its being written, as it were, in blood), 
which amongst other things enjoins, that "no one shall run 
on the Sabbath-day, or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, 
except reverently to and from meeting ;" which makes it 
criminal in a mother to kiss her infant on the Sabbath-day ; 
which strictly forbids the " reading of the Common-Prayer, 
keeping Christmas-day or saint's-day, making mince-pies, 
or playing on any instrument of music, except the drum, 
the trumpet, and the Jews'-harp." The same code en- 
forced attendance at the established Puritan worship, under 

* Energumens — persons possessed with evil spirits. 

+ Bancroft, i. 463. % Blue Code, iS T o. 13. 

§ Keale's Puritans, vol. i. p. 334. 

|| History of Connecticut, 1781. Captain Marryat's Diary, Blue 
Code. A copy of which, through the kindness of the last-named 
gentleman, lies before me. 



TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 67 

the penalty of a money-fine for every time of absence.* 
Indeed, bare toleration of different forms of worship was 
condemned amongst them as unquestionable sin. " If," 
says one of their writers in 1647, " after men continue in 
obstinate rebellion against the light, the civil magistrate 
shall still walk towards them in soft and gentle commise- 
ration, his softness and gentleness is excessive large to foxes 
and wolves, but his bowels are miserably straitened and 
hardened agahist the poor sheep and lambs of Christ. Ner 
is it frustrating the end of Christ's coming, but a direct 
advancing it, to destroy the bodies of those wolves who 
seek to destroy the souls of those for whom Christ died."! 
The same spirit runs through all the dealings of the 
" pilgrim fathers'' with the unhappy Indians whom they 
dispossessed. It seems scarcely to have crossed their minds, 
that these devoted tribes were part of the great human 
family. : ' By this prodigious pestilence," says their histor- 
ian, himself evidently a man of a gentle temper, " the woods 
were cleared of those pernicious creatures, to make room 
for a better growth. "$ These, again, are his speculations 
on the mode by which the American continent was first 
peopled : " We may guess that probably the devil decoyed 
those miserable salvages hither in hopes that the Gospel of 
the Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy or 
disturb his absolute empire over them. ' ' § c ' Tawny pagans, ' ' 
" rabid wolves," "grim salvages." :: bloody salvages," are 
the usual terms he gives them, unless, when rising into 
fervor, he boldly declares them to be :i so many devils." 
As such they were treated. These " pilgrims," who left 
their fathers' land, believing that the ;: Grod of heaven had 
served a summons upon the spirits of His people, stirring 
them up to go over a terrible ocean into a more terrible 
desert, for the pure enjoyment of all His ordinances ... to 
carry the Gospel into those parts, and raise a bulwark 
against antichrist," — they thought nothing, on a mere 
rumor of intended mischief, of " pretending to trade with 
the Indians," that they might more safely, " with prodigi- 

* Cotton's Bloody Tenet washed White. See also Belknap's 
History of New-Hampshire, e. iii. p. 44. 

f a Mather, Hagnalia, i. 7.. J lb. § Magn. b. iii. p. 190. 



68 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

cms resolution, kill divers of their chiefs ;" or of " vigorously 
discharging their muskets upon the salvages," and so " as- 
tonishing them with the strange effects of such dead doing 
things as powder arid shot." Nor was this unconnected 
with the character of their religion. The Churchmen of 
Virginia, until they were provoked to retaliate by the at- 
tempted massacre of their whole colony, had treated all the 
Indian tribes with kindness. There were amongst them, 
from the first, men who devoted all their energies to spread 
the faith of Christ amongst their heathen neighbors. But 
the stern and exclusive creed of the New-England Puritans 
did not favor such attempts. Many of the Puritans, ac- 
customed to regard themselves exclusively as the chosen 
of God, habitually applied to these poor heathens the de- 
nunciations of the Pentateuch against the old inhabitants 
of Canaan. ISTot perceiving that they had no direct charge, 
like the famine or the pestilence, to execute the long-de- 
layed vengeance of the Almighty against a people " whose 
iniquity was full," they deemed themselves commissioned, 
like Joshua of old, to a work of blood ; and thinking that 
the sword of God's vengeance was committed to their 
hands, they rejoiced with enthusiastic triumph at the ap- 
proaching extermination of these tribes of idol- worshippers. 
The same fanatical delusions troubled even the more gentle 
spirits of their band, and kept them from exertion for their 
Indian brethren.* Even amongst their own countrymen, 
we are assured by a contemporary Presbyterian writer, who 
quotes authorities for all his assertions, that three out of 
four were driven by the rigors of their system from com- 
munity with any church ; and as a necessary consequence, 
their peculiar views,! he continues, " exceedingly hindered 
the conversion of the poor pagans. God, in great mercy, 
having opened a door in these last times to a new world of 
reasonable creatures, for this end above all, that the Gospel 
might be preached to them, for the enlargement of the 
kingdom of Christ, — the principles and practice of the In- 
dependents doth cross this blessed hope. What have they 

* Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, 1731, pp. 246, 247. 

t R. Bajlie's Errours of the Time, p. 60. 1646. 



JOHN ELIOT. 69 

to do -with, those that are without ? Their pastors preach 
not for conversion .... Of all that ever crossed the Ame- 
rican seas, they are noted as most neglectful of this work 
. . . I have read of none of them that seem to have minded 
this matter."^ 

It was not till the very year in which this reproach 
was penned that any efforts were made to remove it from 
the Christians of New England. In that year, John Eliot, 
a man of primitive piety, zeal, and mortification, broke 
through the bondage of the system round him, and treated 
the red men, whose lands "the pilgrims" now so largely 
occupied, as having, like themselves, souls for which Christ 
died. He was one of those whom the unhappy humors of 
the time drove out of that Church at home, of which he 
should have been a stay and ornament. But God over- 
ruled his loss to the blessing of these heathen. From a 
complete education at the English University of Cambridge, 
he was lured over the Atlantic to become the apostle of 
the Indians. He stood at first alone. "I cannot find," 
says his Puritan chronicler,! " that any besides the Holy 
Spirit of God first moved him to the blessed work of evan- 
gelising these perishing Indians." " The thought," how- 
ever, he continues, " may have been suggested to him by 
the declaration of the royal charter, that to win and incite 
the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience 
of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the 
Christian faith, in our royal intention and the adventurers' 
free profession, is the principal end of the plantation." 

In this spirit Eliot entered on his work, and thenceforth 
his name has been identified with self-denying and success- 
nil efforts to spread the Gospel of our Lord amongst the 
heathen of North America. He prepared himself for his 
task with unexampled diligence. One great obstacle to be 
surmounted was the difficulty of mastering the Indian 
language. The peculiar feature which pervades its dia- 
lects is, the habit of clustering together, into one prolonged 
word, the separate ideas which, in our language, occupy 

* R. Baylie's Errours of the Time, p. 60. 
f C. Mather, book iii. p. 190. 



\ 



70 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

many distinct words. This made its acquisition seem al- 
most impossible to the contemporaries and even the suc- 
cessors of Eliot. " Its words," says Cotton Mather,^ :i are 
long enough to tire the patience of any scholar in the world ; 
one would think they had been growing ever since Babel 
unto the dimensions to which they are now extended." 
Further on, he gravely tells us that, " once finding the 
daemons in a possessed young woman understood the Latin, 
Greek, and Hebrew languages, curiosity led me to make 
trial of this Indian language, and the daemons did seem as 
if they did not understand it." These difficulties Eliot's 
patience overcame ; and he was hereby able to render the 
most effective service to the cause to which his life was 
given. For the support of these missions, parochial collec- 
tions to a large amount had been made in Cromwell's time. 
These had been invested in the purchase of land ; and, after 
the Restoration, Clarendon's influence maintained the proper 
application of the fund so created. The honorable Robert 
Boyle, a name never to be mentioned without honor, was 
placed at the head of the trust ; the funds of which, at this 
time, were mainly expended in printing the Bible and other 
religious works, of Eliot's translating, in the Indian tongue. f 
So much had his resolute perseverance effected in this 
laborious work. Mightier difficulties than these were 
levelled before him. The fast-closed darkened hearts of 
these Indians opened before his words, and many converts 
were gathered by him into the Christian fold. Nobly did 
he spend himself in these blessed labors. Nor was his ex- 
ample without fruit. At his first engaging in the work, 
'•' all the good men in the country were glad of his under- 
taking : the ministers especially encouraged him." Others 
soon trod in his footsteps ; and, forty-one years after his 
going forth to these Gentiles, there were reckoned " six 
churches of baptised Indians in New-England, and eighteen 
assemblies of catechumens professing the name of Christ ; 
of the Indians, there are twenty-four who are preachers of 
the word of God, and, besides these, there are four English 



* Magnalia, book iii. part iii. 

t Life of Richard Baxter, book i. part ii. p. 290. 



PURITAN TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 71 

ministers who preach the Gospel in the Indian tongue."^ 
This flourishing report is not unquestioned by contemporary 
writers ; but whether it be exaggerated or not, there is no 
doubt as to the early indifference of all the Puritans to such 
exertions ; and it is a striking proof of the fierce and ex- 
clusive temper which their peculiarities had nurtured, that, 
m a settlement which owed its origin to zeal about reli- 
gion, for six-and-twenty years of constant intercourse, in 
peace and war, with their Pagan brethren, the desire of 
their conversion to the faith seems never to have visited a 
single breast ; no one had so much as thought of attempt- 
ing to convey to these unhappy tribes around them the 
blessed message of salvation. With an apathy made more 
portentous by the very language of their charter, they never 
thought of them as men partaking of redemption. They 
seized without scruple on the lands possessed of old times 
by the Indians, " voting themselves to be the children of 
Gi-od, and that the wilderness in the utmost parts of the 
earth was given to them :"f and it is calculated^ that up- 
wards of 180,000 of the aboriginal inhabitants were slaugh- 
tered by them in Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut alone. 
With this indifference towards the heathen was com- 
bined a restless proselyting spirit towards their brethren. 
Early in their history, they attempted to plant the standard 
of division amongst the Churchmen of Virginia ; and when 
once their sect had been established there, New-England 
w r as ever ready to send forth her succors to the founders or 
fomenters of religious difference. 

* Letter of Increase — Mather's, July 12, 1681. Magnalia, book 
iii. p. 111. 

f History of Connecticut, 1*781. J Ibid. p. 112. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM 1G3S TO 1175. 

Spiritual destitution of the colonies — Exertions of the Bishop of 
London, Hon. Robert Boyle, and others — Drs. Blair and Bray sent 
as commissaries to Virginia and Maryland — Xew-York conquered 
by English — Trinity Church endowed — Progress of the Church in 
New-England — Boston petition for episcopal worship — Founda- 
tion of the Society fur the Propagation of the Gospel — Religious 
state of the colonies — Labors of the missionaries of the Venerable 
Society — Rev. George Keith — Violence of Quakers — Opposition 
from New-England magistrates — Yale College — Leading Congre- 
gationalists join the Church — Progress of the Church at Newtown 
under Mr. Beach — Violence of Congregational ists — General state 
of the Church in Virginia — Mr. AYhitefield — Spreading dissent — 
Rise of Anabaptists in Virginia — Resistance to the clergy — Low 
state of the Church — Its causes — Clergy dependent on their flocks 
— Want of Bishops — Attempts to obtain an American episcopate, 
in the reign of Charles II., of Queen Anne — Bishop Berkeley op- 
posed by Walpole — Supported by Archbishop Seeker — Efforts in 
the colonies — Zeal of northern colonies — Virginia refuses to join in 
the attempt — Causes of this refusal. 

To those who have learned to value rightly the importance 
of Christian unity, it will be no matter of surprise to hear, 
that in this divided land the Church of Christ could not 
flourish. So plain, in truth, had become the features of 
moral and religious evil in our Transatlantic colonies at the 
close of the seventeenth century, that the slightest observa- 
tion of them at once startled good men at home, and led 
them to immediate action. Amongst the first of these were 
Sir Leoline Jenkins and the Hon. Robert Boyle ; the first 
of whom left by will a foundation for two fellowships at 
Jesus College, Oxford,, to be held by persons in holy orders 
who should be willing to take upon them the cure of souls 
in our foreign plantations ; and the other, after undertaking 
to conduct a company in 1661, for the propagation of the 



MARYLAND. 73 

Gospel amongst the heathen natives of New England, left 
an annual sum to support the lectures which to this day- 
bear his name, that, "being dead," he might "still speak" 
to all succeeding generations of this great duty of convert- 
ing infidels to the true faith of Christ. 

From these beginnings other efforts followed. In the 
year 1685, the Bishop of London persuaded Dr. Blair to go 
as his commissary to Virginia. For fifty-three years he 
held this office, and zealously discharged its duties. By 
him the long-neglected project of training for the ministry 
the English and Indian youth was happily revived, and 
through his unwearied labors brought at last to a success- 
ful close in the establishment of the college of " William 
and Mary." 

The appointment of Dr. Blair was shortly followed by 
the nomination of Dr. Bray as commissary in Maryland. 

This colony, as has been said, was originally founded 
by settlers of the Roman Catholic persuasion, but with the 
free allowance of all other forms of worship ; and it is well 
worthy of remark, that at the very time when Puritan 
Massachusetts was persecuting to the death all who disagreed 
with the dominant sect, the governors of Maryland were 
bound by an annual oath, not " by themselves, or indi- 
rectly, to trouble, molest, or discountenance any person 
professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of 
religion ; and if any such were so molested, to protect the 
person molested, and punish the offender."^ On this basis 
things continued until the time of the Great Rebellion. 
Settlers of various views in matters of religion had been 
received and protected in the colony. But as soon as the gov- 
ernment was w r rested from the hands of the Lord Baltimore 
by the adherents of the parliament, and the Independents 
thereby made its masters, they repealed these laws of uni- 
versal toleration, and proscribed entirely " popery and pre- 
lacy." It is not a little striking, that the first enactment 
in the statute-book of Maryland, which forbade to any one 
the free exercise of that which he believed to be the true 
form of Christian worship, should have been introduced by 

* Chalmers, 235 ; quoted by Dr. Hawks. 
4 



74 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

such fierce pretenders to religious liberty as the Indepen- 
dents. 

So, however, it was ; and such the law continued until 
the fall of Cromwell's party. With the Restoration, Lord 
Baltimore regained his rights as owner of the colony, and 
for a season all proceeded on its former plan. But a shock 
had been given to the old constitution ; and the troubles 
which from time to time disturbed society at home, soon 
extended to the colony, and took there the same direction. 
The mass of the population were by this time Protestant ; 
and as during the reigns of Charles and James II., fears of 
popery were the mainsprings of disturbances in England, 
Maryland, now brought anew under the rule of a Roman 
Catholic proprietor, was a favorable theatre for such com- 
motions. Accordingly, the accession of William and Mary 
to the English throne was, after some preparatory troubles, 
followed by the overthrow of Lord Baltimore's authority, 
and the substitution in his stead of a royal governor. This 
change was succeeded by an act of assembly, which, in 
1692, established the Church of England as the religion of 
the colony ; divided its territory into parishes ; and endowed 
its clergy with an income to be derived from the payment 
of forty pounds of tobacco by every taxable person in the 
province. To the operation of this law, the opponents of 
the Church created various hindrances. The Romanists 
and Quakers, — who abounded in the colony, and both 
looked on such a law as most injurious to themselves, — 
united in their opposition to it ; and sometimes by colonial 
resistance, sometimes by misrepresentation to the govern- 
ment at home, they long delayed its execution. 

At this critical period, the clergy, feeling their weak- 
ness, and seeing that it was in great part owing to that 
want of union, of which the presence of their proper head 
is so great a spring and safeguard, besought the Bishop of 
London to send them at least a commissary, clothed with 
such power as should "capacitate him to redress what is 
amiss, and supply what is wanting, in the Church." The 
bishop assented to their wishes ; and most happy was his 
choice. Dr. Thomas Bray, his first commissary hi Mary- 
land, was a man of rare devotion, joined to an invincible 



DR. BRAY. 75 

energy in action. He abandoned willingly the prospect of 
large English preferment, to nourish the infant Church in 
the spiritual wastes of Maryland. JNTo sooner had he ac- 
cepted the appointment than he set himself to contrive 
means for fulfilling all its duties. His first care was to find 
pious and useful ministers, whom he could persuade to set- 
tle with him on the other side of the Atlantic ; and in this 
he so far prospered as to increase the number laboring there 
from three to sixteen clergymen. He began also the forma- 
tion of colonial libraries ; and in the course of his exertion 
in this work, was led on to still greater efforts. He per- 
ceived the need and the fitness of the co-operation of all 
ranks of Churchme?i in such attempts ; and having once 
conceived this idea, he rested not until he had laid the 
foundation of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
ledge, and that for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts. 

In all these labors he was indefatigable. No difficulties 
daunted him. Finding, in the course of his preparations, 
that he required the personal consent of the king to some 
proposed arrangements, he undertook at once, and at his 
own expense, a voyage to Holland, where the monarch 
then was. In a like spirit he acted throughout ; for some 
years he continued patiently completing his preparations in 
England, though his salary as commissary did not begin 
until he sailed for Maryland. At length, on the 12th of 
March, 1700, after a tedious voyage, he reached the land 
of his adoption. Here he soon displayed the like activity. 
He assembled the clergy at visitations — instructed them by 
charges — and enforced discipline, to the utmost of his means, 
against any of bad lives. 

On one notoriously corrupt he enforced, before the other 
clergy, the aggravations of his crime. First, "that it is 
done by a person in holy orders. Secondly, by a onissioji- 
ary (which, by the way, my brethren, should be a conside- 
ration of no small weight with all of us.) Third] y, as to 
time, that this scandal is given at a juncture when our 
Church here is weakest, and our friends seem to be fewest, 
and our enemies strongest. And, lastly, as to place, it so 
happens that you are seated in the midst of papists ; and. 



76 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

I am credibly informed, there have been more perversions 
made to popery since your crime has been the talk of the 
country, than in all the time it has been an English colony. 
These considerations, sir, do make it necessary that all pos- 
sible expedition, which is consistent with common justice, 
should be made in this affair, so as to acquit you or condemn 
you."* 

What the results of such zeal might have been, if, in- 
stead of being a delegated representative of a distant prelate, 
Dr. Bray had himself, been appointed bishop in Maryland, 
it is impossible to calculate. As it was, the efforts, which 
depended wholly on his individual zeal, instead of springing 
ever fresh out of the system of the Church, scarcely outlived 
his own stay in Maryland. This was necessarily short. 
The opposition made to the established rights of the colo- 
nial clergy called for his presence at head-quarters, where 
the Quakers and Romanists were active and united ; and 
he returned to England to maintain the cause of his afflicted 
community. Upon his departure religion comparatively 
languished, from the weakness of its imperfect planting, 
and the uncorrected evil lives of some among the clergy. 
Still, in spite of all hindrances, the Church gained some 
ground ; and a majority of the colony, now increased to 
30,000, were accounted of her communion. 

Nor was this rising energy confined to Maryland. There 
was a stir also in the other provinces. New Amsterdam, 
or New- York, as it was termed after its conquest by the 
English, was finally ceded by the Dutch, at the treaty ol 
Breda, in 1667. This change of masters transferred at 
once the garrison- chapel to the use of the Church of Eng- 
land. Within these narrow walls it was limited for many 
years, until, in 1696, another church was built under the 
name of " Trinity," and endowed temporarily by Governor 
Fletcher, and in perpetuity by his successor the Lord Corn- 
bury, with the freehold of a neighboring property, known 
hitherto as the u King's Farm." Even in New-England, 
in spite of penal laws, which rigidly prohibited any "min- 
istry or Church administration, in any town or plantation 

* Hawks' s Eccles. Con. vol. ii. p. 102. 



SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 77 

of the colony, separate from that which is openly observed 
and dispensed by the approved minister of the place," a 
movement began towards the long-despised Church of Eng- 
land. 

In 1679 a petition, from a large body of persons in their 
chief town of Boston, was presented to King Charles II., 
praying " that a church might be allowed in that city for 
the exercise of religion according to the Church of England." 
This request was granted, and a church erected for the 
purpose, bearing the name of " the King's Chapel." Far 
more considerable matters followed the inquiry which this 
step occasioned. It was found, that throughout all that 
populous district there were but four who called themselves 
ministers of the Church of England ; and but two of these 
who had been regularly sent forth to the work. This was 
a state of things which could not be endured ; and by a 
happy movement, of which Dr. Bray was in great measure 
the suggestor, the bishops of the Church set themselves to 
find some means for its correction. They determined to 
associate themselves into a body for this purpose, with such 
devout members of the laity and clergy as God should in- 
cline to join them in their work of mercy. They issued 
' their address to the community, and were joined by ready 
hearts on all sides ; so that, having applied for and obtained 
a charter of incorporation, they met for despatch of business, 
as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in June, 
1701, under the Archbishop of Canterbury as their presi- 
dent. Many great names in the English Church appear 
in the catalogue of their first and warmest supporters, 
amongst the chief of whom were Bishop Beveridge, Arch- 
bishops Wake and Sharp, and Bishops Gibson and Berke- 
ley. 

Funds soon flowed hi upon them from every quarter ; 
but the want to be relieved was greater than the worst 
returns had stated. England, it was found, had been in- 
deed peopling the new world with colonies of heathens. 
" There is at this day," is Bishop Berkeley's declaration 
somewhat later, " but little sense of religion, and a most 
notorious corruption of mami's, in the English colonies 



78 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

settled on the continent of America. " # Nor will this lan- 
guage appear overstrained, if it is compared with the nu- 
merical returns which the inquiries of the day called forth. 
For from these it appeared that in " South Carolina there 
were 7,000 souls, besides negroes and Indians, living with- 
out any minister of the Church . . . and above half the 
people living regardless of any religion. In North Carolina 
above 5,000 souls without any minister, any administra- 
tions used ; no public worship celebrated ; neither the chil- 
dren baptised, nor the dead buried, in any Christian form. 
Virginia contained above 40,000 souls, divided into 40 pa- 
rishes, but wanting near half the number of clergymen 
requisite. Maryland contained above 25,000, divided into 
26 parishes, but wanting near half the number of ministers 
requisite. In Pennsylvania (says Col. Heathcote) there 
are at least 20,000 souls, of which not above 700 frequent 
the church, and there are not more than 250 communicants. 
In New York government we have 30,000 souls at least, 
of which about 1,200 frequent the church, and we have 
about 450 communicants. In Connecticut there are about 
30,800 souls ; of which, when they have a minister among 
them, about 150 frequent the church, and there are 35 
communicants. In Rhode Island and Narraganset there 
are about 10,000 souls, of which about 150 frequent the 
church, and there are 30 communicants. In Boston and 
Piscataway there are about 80,000 souls, of which about 
600 frequent the church, and 120 the sacrament. This is 
the true, though melancholy state of our Church in North 
America."! 

Nor are these merely the accounts of Episcopalian 
writers. Cotton Mather describes the state of Rhode 
Island colony in 1695, as "a colluvies of Antinomians, 
Familists, Auabapists, Antisabbatarians, Armmians, Soci- 
nians, Quakers, Ranters, and everything but Roman 

* A " Proposal for better supplying of Churches in our Foreign 
Plantations," published in 1725. 

f Humphrey's History of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, p. 41, (fee. These figures, however, it must be borne in mind, 
give the numbers of the Church of England; not of the whole Chris- 
tian population. 



RELIGIOUS STATE OF RHODE ISLAND. 79 

Gatliolics and true Christians ; bonna terra mala gens."* 
Such was, within little more than fifty years, the fruit of 
founding a people on the specious attempt of making " no 
man a delinquent for doctrine :" not in its true sense, of 
abandoning all hope of forcing men to trust in Christ by 
penalties and statutes, but in its most false sense, of treat- 
ing them as if they were not themselves indeed responsible 
for their belief; of maintaing no external system of faith, 
but counting that as true to every man which he was 
pleased to gather for himself in the boundless waste of un- 
authorized opinion ; of resting truth upon the shifting sand- 
bank of opinion, and not on the sure rock of revelation. 

How far such a population could act as an outpost of 
the faith may be easily conceived. What their influence 
had been amongst their Indian neighbors we are told by 
Bishop Berkeley, when he says that these, who " formerly 
were in the compass of one colony many thousands, do not 
at present amount to one, including every age and sex ; 
and these are all servants of the English, who have con- 
tributed more to destroy their bodies by the use of strong 
liquors, than by any means to improve their minds or save 
their souls. This slow poison, jointly operating with the 
small-pox and their wars (but much more destructive than 
both) have consumed the Indians not only in our colonies, 
but also far and wide upon our confines. It must be 
owned, our reformed planters, with respect to the natives 
and their slaves, might learn from those of the Church of 
Rome how it is their interest and duty to behave. Both 
the French and Spaniards . . . take care to instruct both 
the natives and their negroes in the Popish religion, to the 
reproach of those who profess abetter."! 

To supply the spiritual necessities of these our sons and 
daughters, the society addressed itself with zeal. And 
much, under God's blessing, they accomplished in various 
quarters. Their choice was guided to many fit and zeal- 
ous instruments for the performance of this holy work. 
They sent out clergy, fixed and itinerating, to all the dis- 

* Magnalia, b. vii. c. 3, p. 20. 

f Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, 1131. 



80 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tricts except Virginia and Maryland, which were in some 
degree supplied already through the influence of their old 
endowments. Many a soul had cause to hless God for the 
labors of these men ; who. — whether they went into the 
total darkness which had settled down on many districts, 
or preached to the " Foxian Quakers." who in their zeal 
for the " teaching of the inward light," were fast losing all 
remains of Christianity ; or amongst the New-Englanders, 
who " consisted chiefly of sectaries of many denominations 

too many of whom had worn off a serious sense of 

all religion,"* — alike gathered in some converts to the fold. 
They were indeed in labors abundant. Thus amongst the 
first was George Keith, who had been himself a Quaker, 
but was now in English holy orders, and travelled for two 
years, between 1702 and 1705. through all the govern- 
ments of England, between North Carolina and Piscataway 
river in New-England, preaching twice on Sundays and 
week-days ; offering up public prayers ; disputing with the 
Quakers ; and establishing the Church. " He has done," 
says a letter of the day, " great service to the Church 
wherever he has been, by preaching and disputing publicly 
and from house to house ; he has confuted many, especially 
the Anabaptists, by labor and travail night and day, by 
writing and printing of books, mostly at his own cost and 
charge, giving them out freely, which has been very expen- 
sive to him. By these means people are much awakened, 
and their eyes opened to see the good old way ; and they 
are very well pleased to find the Church at last take such 
care of her children." Two hundred " Quakers or Quaker- 
ly-affected" converts he himself baptised with his own hand, 
besides " divers other dissenters also in Pennsylvania, West 
and East Jersey, and New- York.' 3 

These successes were not gained without a sharp con- 
flict. Bitter and grievous are the charges with which the 
Quakers assailed him. He who sees this sect only in the 
calm into which it has long since subsided can scarcely 
conceive the storm and furv with which its earlv enthusi- 



* Bishop Berkeley's Sermon before the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel. ° 



MISSIONARIES. 81 

asm raged. Yet these their old writers everywhere exhibit. 
The very index to the life of Fox thus disposes of the Eng- 
lish Clergy : " They sell the Scriptures — pray by form — are 
hirelings, tithe-takers, robbers of the people — not ministers 
of the gospel — plead for sin — dread the man in leathern 
breeches — are miserable comforters — reproved in the streets 
— one pleads for adultery — beats friends — are oppressors — 
persecutors — the devil's counsellors and lawyers." 

Men of such a temper as these extracts indicate would 
not easily yield up their past predominance, and there was 
no extremity of calumny with which they did not visit 
Keith. They would not hear of granting to Episcopalians 
the most ordinary toleration. Thus when Dr. Bray endea- 
vored to stir up the voluntary zeal of Christians at home 
to make some adequate provision for religion in the colo- 
nies, his memorial was met by furious invectives from the 
famous Joseph Wyeth, who declares his object to be " to 
prevent, if I may, the setting up and establishing a power 
of persecuting and imposition in the colonies, which would 
be to the discouragement of the industrious planter," &c* 
Yet, in spite of all assaults, the truth steadily prevailed. 
" In Pennsylvania" — was his concluding report — " where 
there was but one Church-of-England congregation, to wit, 
at Pennsylvania, of few years' standing, there are now five. 
At Burlington, in New Jersey, a settled congregation ; at 
Frankfort, in Pennsylvania, the Quakers' meeting is turned 
into a church ; and within these two years thirteen minis- 
ters are planted in the nothern parts of America. "t These, 
and all save the settled clergy of Virginia and Maryland, 
were the missionaries of the Society, then newly formed, 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. To 
the labors of that venerable body, throughout a long season 
of sluggish inactivity and wintry darkness, the colonies of 
England are indebted for all the spiritual care bestowed 
upon them by the mother-country. Well did its ministers 
deserve the honored name of Christian Missionaries. Theirs 
were toils too often unrequited, carried on in the face of 



* Remarks on Bray's Memorial by J. Wyeth, 1701. 
f Narrative of the Rev. George Keith, <kc. 



82 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

dangers, loss, and extreme hardships. The hardly settled 
country was still liable to Indian incursion. The home- 
steads of the settlers lay far apart from one another, severed 
by woods, wastes, and morasses, across which, in many 
places, no better roads were yet carried than an Indian 
path, with all its uncertainty and danger. Day by day 
these must be passed by those who discharged in that land 
the office of the ministry. "In many places also there 
were great rivers, from one, two, to six, twelve, and fifteen 
miles over, with no ferry. He that would answer the end 
of his mission must not only have a good horse, but a good 
boat and a couple of experienced watermen. " # In such a 
country he often had to minister at " places above sixty 
and seventy miles distant, and found it a very laborious 
mission."! How laborious it was, may be learned from 
the following sketch of his mission, sent from JNTorth Caro- 
lina to the Society of 1722. " The first Sunday I preach, 
going by land and water some few miles, at Esquire Duck- 
enfield's house, large enough to hold a great congregation, 
till we have built a church, which is hereafter to be called 
Society Church. The second Sunday I take a journey up 
to a place called Maheim, about forty miles off, where 
there are abundance of inhabitants. Third Sunday, as the 
first. Fourth, I go up to a place called Meaon, about 
thirty miles journey. Fifth, I cross the sound to Eden 
Town. Sixth, to the chapel on the south shore, about 
twelve miles by water; and so, the seventh, begin as 
above, except once every quarter I go up to a place called 
Roanoke, about eighty miles journey ; and the five last 
Sundays of the year the vestries do give me, that I may 
go my rounds and visit the remote parts of the country, 
where the inhabitants live some 150 miles off; people who 
will scarce ever have the oppurtunity of hearing me, or 
having their children baptised, unless I goto them . . . ."J 
These were their labors ; for which they had no other re- 
compense than such as have at all times animated martyrs 

* MS. letters of the S. P. G., quoted in "Early Colonial Church," 
No. iv., by Rev. E. Hawkins. 
t Ibid. xvi. p. 92. 
\ MS. Letters in " Early Colonial Church," xvi. p. 92, 



MISSIONARIES. 83 

and confessors ; fifty pounds a year from the Society, and, 
sometimes at least, but " thirty pounds paid during five 
years in depreciated paper," was the stipend of such labor- 
ers. Their mode of living embraced no luxuries. " The 
water," says one, describing what he saw around him, 
" was brackish and muddy ; their ordinary food was salt 
pork, but sometimes beef; their bread, of Indian corn, 
which they are forced, for want of mills, to beat." " My 
lodging." adds another, " was an old tobacco-house, exposed 
even in my bed to the injuries and violences of bad weather."^ 
These were not their severest trials ; long neglect had hard- 
ened the settlers' hearts against the truth ; the dying sparks 
of religion had to be fanned into a flame amidst abounding 
opposition; the people were "barbarous and disorderly," 
they impiously profaned the holiest rites, and heaped upon 
these messengers of peace " abuses and contumely." The 
sectarians, who had been suffered to forestall them, were 
" very numerous, extremely ignorant, insufferably proud, 
ambitious, and consequently ungovernable."! 

It can cause no surprise to find that some turned back 
in hopeless despondency from such a task ; and that others, 
whose first care was "so to acquit themselves, in that 
troublesome and unsettled country, as to be able to give a 
comfortable account of their stewardship at that dreadful 
tribunal where the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed," 
soon sunk under their exhausting labors. J Some good no 
doubt they did ; some wanderers in that distant wilderness 
shall one day rise up and call them blessed.. Their record 
is on high. Even here they were not always without wit- 
ness. "We shall ever bless Providence," says the vestry 
of Carotuch of one who in that great day shall rise out of 
his distant grave in Carolina, "that placed him amongst 
us, and should be very unjust to his character if we did 
not give him the testimony of a pious and painful pastor, 
whose sweetness of temper, diligence in his calling, and 

* MS. Letters in " Early Colonial Church," ix. p. 273 ; iv. p. 105. 

f Letters, ut supra. 

\ Of one (the Rev. Clement Hall) we read, e< It is no excessive 
computation, that this good and most laborious missionary baptised 
ten thousand persons." S. P. G. Report, 1760- 



84 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

soundness of doctrine, hath so much conduced to promote 
the great end of his mission, that we hope the good seed 
God hath enabled him to sow will bear fruit upwards."* 
But for such efforts as these, the very name of Christ's 
Gospel would have perished out of that land, and, shame- 
ful as it is to England that she made no better provision 
for her colonies, blessed was their work, and great, doubt- 
less, will one day be their reward who devised and carried 
out these unrequited labors. 

In New-England also the Church was rooted amidst 
storms and opposition. Wherever the missionaries came, 
" the ministers and magistrates of the Independents were 
remarkably industrious, going from house to house persuad- 
ing the people from hearing them, and threatening those 
who would attend with imprisonment and punishment. "f 
At one place a magistrate with officers came to the preach- 
er's lodgings, and in the hearing of the people read a paper, 
declaring that " in coming among them to establish a new 
way of worship, he had done an illegal thing, and was now 
forewarned against preaching any more." Yet here too 
the good seed was not sown in vain ; for in many spots 
throughout the country devout and abiding congregations of 
the faithful were gathered under apostolic order. 

The movement began, in spite of all precautions, within 
the wails of Yale College ,t the stronghold of the Indepen- 
dents. So carefully had this been fenced from such attempts, 
that its fundamental law prescribed that rio student should 
be allowed instruction in any other system of divinity than 
such as the trustees appointed ; and every one was forced 
to learn the Assembly's Catechism, and other books of pu- 
ritanical authority. 

For a time the dry metaphysics of this school excluded 
all healthier learning. But about the year 1711, the agent 
of the colony in England sent over 800 volumes, amongst 
which were many of the standard works of the divines of 
the English Church. These books were eagerly devoured 

* MS. Letters, ut supra. 

f Humphrey's History of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, p. 339. 

i Life of Dr. Johnson, by Chandler, p. 24, &c. 



MISSION IN CONNECTICUT. 85 

by the hungry students ; and amongst the first whom they 
affected were the rector of the college, Dr. Cutler, and two 
of its leading tutors, Messrs. Johnson and Brown. They 
were amongst the most distinguished of the Puritan divines ; 
and their humble adoption of the Church's teaching, their 
abandonment of their endowments in the college, laying 
down the ministry which without due warrant they had 
hitherto discharged, and setting out for England to receive 
ordination at the bishop's hands, — -drew general attention 
to the subject. Brown fell a victim to the small-pox in 
England ; Cutler suffered severely from the same disease, 
but recovering, was, with Johnson, ordained to the priest- 
hood, and with him returned, in 1723, to the colony,* 
where their influence ere long was widely felt. Cutler was 
settled at Boston, and, amidst unceasing persecutions, main- 
tained to the last the standard of the faith. For fifty 
years of patient toil Johnson labored earnestly at Strat- 
ford. 

His answers to the queries issued by the Bishop of Lon- 
don will follow up this history of his ministry, amongst " a 
peop]e" whom he found " low and poor in fortune, yet very 
serious and well minded, and ready to entertain any instruc- 
tions that may forward them in the paths of virtue and 
truth and godliness." 

" Q,. How long is it since you went over to the planta- 
tions as a missionary ? 

"A. I arrived upon my charge November 1st, 1723. 

" Q,. Have you had any other church before you came to 
that which you now possess ; and if you had, what church 
was it, and how long have you been removed ? 

" A. I was a teacher in the Presbyterian method at West 
Haven, about ten miles off from this town ; but never was 
in the service of the Established Church till the honorable 
society admitted me into their service as missionary. 

" Gb. Have you been duly licensed by the Bishop of Lon- 
don to officiate as a missionary in the government where 
you now are ? 

"A. I was licensed by your Lordship to officiate as a 
missionary in this colony of Connecticut. 

* Life of Dr. Johnson, p. 36. 



86 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" &. How long have you been inducted into your liv- 
ing? 

" A. I was admitted into the honorable society's service 
in the beginning of January, 1722-3. 

" Q,. Are you ordinarily resident in the parish to which 
you have been inducted ? 

" A. I am constantly resident at Stratford, excepting the 
time that I am riding about to preach in the neighboring 
towns that are destitute of ministers. 

" Q,. Of what extent is your parish, and how many fam- 
ilies are there in it ? 

"A. The town is nigh ten miles square, and has about 
250 or 300 families in it, nigh 50 of which are of the Es- 
tablished Church. But indeed the Episcopal people of all 
the towns adjacent esteem themselves my parishioners ; as 
at Fairfield about 30 families, the like number at New 
Town, at West Haven about 10, and sundry in other 
places. 

" Q,. Are there any infidels, bond or free, within your 
parish ; and what means are used for their conversion ? 

" A. There are nigh 200 Indians in the bounds of the 
town, for whose conversion there are no means used, and 
the like in many other towns ; and many negroes that are 
slaves in particular families, some of which go to church, 
but most of them to meeting. 

" Q,. How oft is divine service performed in your church ; 
and what proportion of the parishioners attend it ? 

"A. Service is performed only on Sundays and holydays, 
and many times 100 or 150 people attend it, but sometimes 
not half so many, and sometimes twice that number, espe- 
cially upon the three great festivals ; and when I preach at 
the neighboring towns, especially at F airfield and New 
Town, I have a very numerous audience ; which places, as 
they very much want, so they might be readily supplied with 
ministers from among ourselves, and those the best that are 
educated here, if there was but a bishop to ordain them. 

"ft. How oft is the sacrament of the Lord's supper 
administered ? and what is the usual number of communi- 
cants ? 

"A, I administer the holy eucharist on the first Sun- 



MISSION IN CONNECTICUT. 87 

day of every month, to about thirty and sometimes forty 
communicants ; and upon the three great festivals, to about 
sixty. But there are nigh one hundred communicants here 
and in the towns adjacent, to whom I administer as often 
as I can attend them. 

" Q,. At what times do you catechise the youth of your 
parish ? 

"A. I catechise every Lord's day, immediately after 
evening service, and explain the catechism to them. 

" Q,. Are all things duly disposed and provided in the 
church for the decent and orderly performance of divine 
service ? 

"A. We have no church ; have begun to build one ; 
but such is the poverty of the people, that we get along 
but very slowly. Neither have we any furniture for the 
communion, save that which Narraganset people lay claim 
to ; concerning which I have written to your lordship by 
my churchwarden. 

" Q,. Of what value is your living hi sterling money ? 
and how does it arise ? 

"A. I have 60Z. sterling settled on me by the honor- 
able society, and receive but very little from my poor peo- 
ple, save now and then a few small presents. 

" Q,. Have you a house and glebe ? Is your glebe in 
lease, or let by the year, or is it occupied by yourself? 
"A. I have neither house nor glebe. 
" Q,. Have you more cures than one ? If you have, 
what are they ? and in what manner served ? 

"A. There are Fairfield, eight miles off; New Town, 
twenty ; Hepton, eight ; West Haven, ten ; and New Lon- 
don, seventy miles off; to all which places I ride, and 
preach, and administer the sacrament, as often as I can ; 
but have no assistance, save that one Dr. Laborie, an inge- 
nious gentleman, does gratis explain the catechism at Fair- 
field ; but all these places want ministers extremely. 

" Qi. Have you in your parish any public school for the 
instruction of youth ? If you have, is it endowed ? and who 
is the master ? 

" A. The Independents have one or two poor schools 
among them, but there are no schools of the Church of 



Ob AMERICAN CHURCH. 

England in the town nor colony ; for which reason I have 
recommended my churchwarden to your lordship and the 
honorable society. 

" Q,. Have you a parochial library ? If you have, are 
the books preserved, and kept in good condition ? Have 
you any particular rules and orders for the preserving of 
them ? Are those rules and orders duly observed ? 

"A. We have no library save the 10Z. worth which 
the honorable society gave, which I keep carefully by 
themselves in my study, in the same condition as I keep 
my own."* 

These inroads on their undisturbed sway were ill endured 
by the sturdy Congregationalists. They claimed, and en- 
deavored to exercise, powers rarely wielded by any estab- 
lished national communion. They called together synods, 
in which, but for the direct interposition of the civil arm, 
they would have enacted canons wherewith to bind men 
of all opinions in the colonies. They assumed the right of 
taxing all for the support of their ministers and meeting- 
houses ; and wherever they could gain over the local governor 
to their persuasion, proceeded to enforce their claim with 
signal violence. " With melancholy hearts," the members of 
a "young church" at Wallingford, Connecticut, wrote home 
to complain, " have divers of us been imprisoned, and our 
goods from year to year distrained, for taxes levied for the 
building and supporting meeting-houses ; and when we 
have petitioned our governor for redress, notifying to him 
the repugnance of such actions to the laws of England, he 
hath proved a strong opponent to us ; but when the other 
party hath applied to him for advice how to proceed against 
us, he hath given sentence to enlarge the gaol, and fill it 
with them, i. e. the Church "f From words and taunts 
they often passed to actual violence. As late as 1750, an 
old man, who had been long a member of the Church, was 
whipped publicly for not attending meeting. They fined 
heavily, in the same year, an episcopal clergyman of Eng- 
lish birth and education, on the pretence that he had bro- 
ken the Sabbath by walking home too fast from church ; 

* July 2, 1729 : Fulham mss. f Fulham mss. 



PERSECUTION OF CHURCHMEN. 89 

and at Hartford one of the judges of the county court, 
assisted by the mob, pulled down a rising church, and 
with the stones built a mansion for his son.^ 

This spirit was continually breaking out. " We are 
oppressed," writes Mr. Johnson, " and despised as the filth 
of the world, and the off-scouring of all things, unto this 
day. The Independents boast themselves as an establish- 
ment, and look down upon the poor Church of England 
with contempt, as a despicable, schismatical, and popish 
communion. Their charter is the foundation of all their 

insolence I cannot but think it very hard that 

that Church, of which our most gracious king is the nurs- 
ing father, should not, in any part of his dominions, be at 
least upon a level with the dissenters, and free from any 
oppressions from them. Another instance is this. All 
persons that shall come to inhabit in this colony, or are 
born here, have, by the charter, all the liberties and immu- 
nities of free and natural subjects, as if they were born with- 
in the realm of England. Notwithstanding which, they have 
made laws to prevent strangers from settling among them. 
As soon as any stranger, though an Englishman, comes 
into town, he is, according to their laws, immediately 
warned to go out,t which they always do if he is a Church- 
man. And it is in the breast of the select men of the 
town whether they will accept of any bondsmen for him ; 
neither can he purchase any lands without their leave ; and 
unless they see cause to allow him to stay, they can by 
their laws whip him out of town, if he otherwise refuses 
to depart. By this means several professors of our Church, 
for no other crime but their profession, have been prevented 
from settling here. A very worthy man, who had not be- 
fore been of any religion, but was, by G-od's blessing on my 
endeavors, induced to become a very serious conformist to 
our Church, came here to set up a considerable trade ; but 
for want of men to carry on his business, (occasioned by the 
forementioned practices,) and by reason of the discourage- 
ment he every way meets with from them, he is forced to 

* History of Connecticut, 1781. 

f This was done under the general provisions of the poor-law, to 
prevent strangers gaining a settlement sub silentio. 



90 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

break up and depart, to his unspeakable damage ; and the 
Church has lost a very worthy friend and benefactor. "^ 

Such assumed powers they continued to exert, although 
it was shown them that the lords justices in 1725 had 
expressly declared, " that there was no regular establish- 
ment of any national or provincial Church in these plan- 
tations." But they were not soon daunted ; and even when 
these continued exactions had led the sufferers to obtain a 
fresh opinion from the law-officers of the crown, which dis- 
tinctly declared that no such colonial rules could be enforced 
on Churchmen, they endeavored to evade its power, by 
passing an act which exempted members of the Church 
from future payments, but at the same time declared, that 
all who lived at more than a mile from any church were 
not to be esteemed as Churchmen. " It were too long and 
tragical,"! writes another New-England clergyman after 
the passing of this law, " to repeat the several difficulties, 
and severities, and -affronts, which our hearers are harassed 
with in many parts of this colony, by rigorous persecutions 
and arbitrary pecuniary demands, inflicted on the consci- 
entious members of our Church by domineering Presby- 
terians, the old implacable enemies of our Sion's prosperity. 
Here your sons are imprisoned, arrested, and non-suited 
with prodigious cost, contrary to the laws of God and man. 
All professors of the Church of England, over whom there 
is not a particular missionary appointed, are obliged to 
support Presbyterian teachers and their meeting-houses — a 
cruelty, injustice, and usurpation, imposed on no other so- 
ciety." 

In the midst of these difficulties from without, the in- 
jury inflicted on the Church by its imperfect spiritual or- 
ganization was felt with the greatest bitterness. " The 
Independents, or Congregationalists"J they complain, "here 
in New- Engl and, especially in Massachusetts and Connec- 
ticut, without any regard to the king's supremacy, have 
established themselves by law, and so are pleased to con- 

* Fulham mss. A respectable bookseller at Boston was convicted 
of a libel for publishing Leslie's " Short Method with the Deists." — 
WaterlanoVs Letters to Jno. Loveday, Esq. vol. xi. 441. 

f Fulham mss. % Fulham mss. 



CHURCHMEN IX NEW ENGLAND. 91 

sider and treat us of the Church as dissenters. . . . The 
Presbyterians chiefly obtain in the south-western colonies, 
especially in those of New- York, Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
where they have flourishing Presbyteries and synods hi full 
vigor : while the poor Church of England in all these 
colonies is in a low, depressed, and very imperfect state, for 
want of her pure primitive episcopal form of Church go- 
vernment. We do not envy our neighbors, nor in the least 
desire to disquiet them in their several ways ; we only de- 
sire to be at least upon as good a footing as they, and as 
perfect in our kind as they imagine themselves in theirs. 
And this we think we have a right to, both as the Episco- 
pal government was the only form at first universally 
established by the apostles, and is, moreover, the form 
established by law in our mother country. We therefore 
cannot but think ourselves extremely injured, and in a state 
little short of persecution, while our candidates are forced, 
at a great expense both of lives and fortunes, to go a thou- 
sand leagues for every ordination, and we are destitute of 
confirmation and a regular government. So that, unless 
we can have bishops, especially at this juncture, the Church, 
and with it the interest of true religion, must dwindle and 
greatly decay, while we suffer the contempt and triumph 
of our neighbors, who even plume themselves with the 
hopes (as from the lukewarmness and indifference of this 
miserably apostatising age I doubt they have too much 
occasion to do) that the Episcopate is more likely to be 
abolished at home than established abroad ; and, indeed, 
they are vain enough to think that the civil government at 
home is itself really better affected to them than to the 
Church, and even disaffected to that ; otherwise, say they, 
it would doubtless establish episcopacy." 

Yet, in spite of all hindrances, the persecuted body grew 
and multiplied. Sometimes a wealthy resident would 
build a church upon his own estate ; sometimes the move- 
ment rose amongst the mass of poorer persons. " I have 
lately,"^ says one of these reports, been preaching at 
New-Haven, where the college is, and had a considerable 

* Fulliam mss. 



92 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

congregation, and among them several of the scholars, who 
are very inquisitive about the principle of our Church ; 
and after sermon ten of the members of the Church there 
subscribed 100Z. towards the building a church in that 
town, and are zealously engaged about undertaking it ; and 
I hope in a few years there will be a large congregation 
there." "It is with great pleasure," says another, "that 
we see the success of our labors in the frequent conversions 
of dissenting teachers in this country, and the good dispo- 
sition towards the excellent constitution of our Church 
growing amongst the people wherever the honorable society 
have settled their missions. Sundry others of their teachers 
are likely to appear for the Church ; and two very honest 
and ingenious men have declared themselves this winter. 
. . . We are persuaded that it is from a serious and impar- 
tial examination of things, and the sincere love of truth 
and sense of duty, that they have come over to our com- 
munion." 

What was the character of the ministry which some 
faithful men were, under all discouragements, enabled to 
maintain, may be gathered from the following letter :* — 

" Being by the favorable providence of God arrived in 
New-England, in obedience to your lordship's commands, 
I make bold to lay before you the state of this colony of 
Connecticut, to which your lordship has licensed me. The 
people here are generally rigid Independents, and have an 
inveterate enmity against the established Church ; but of 
late the eyes of great multitudes are opened to see the great 
error of such an uncharitable, and therefore unchristian 
spirit. This is come to pass chiefly in six or seven towns, 
whereof this of Stratford, where I reside, is the principal ; 
and though I am unworthy and unmeet to be entrusted 
with such a charge, yet there is not one clergyman of the 
Church of England besides myself in this whole colony ; 
and I am obliged, in a great measure, to neglect my cure 
at Stratford (where yet there is business enough for one 
minister) to ride about to the other towns, (some ten, some 
twenty miles off, ) where in each of them there is as much 

* Mr. Johnson to the Bishop of London. Fulham mss. 



CONNECTICUT. 93 

need of a resident minister as there is at Stratford, espe- 
cially at Newtown and Fairfield. So that the case of 
these destitute places, as well as of myself, who have this 
excess of business, is extremely unhappy and compassion- 
able. 

" Now, at the same time, there are a considerable num- 
ber of very promising young gentlemen — five or six I am 
sure of — and those the best that are educated among us, 
who might be instrumental to do a great deal of good to 
the souls of men, were they ordained ; but for want of epis- 
copal ordination decline the ministry, and go into secular 
business ; being partly from themselves, and partly through 
the influence of their friends, unwilling to expose them- 
selves to the danger of the seas and distempers, — so terri- 
fying has been the unhappy fate of Mr. Brown. * So that 
the fountain of all our misery is the want of a bishop, for 
whom there are many thousands of souls in this country 
who do impatiently long and pray, and for want do ex- 
tremely suffer. 

" Permit me to remember the concern you were pleased 
to express for sending a suffragan into this country when 
we were before you, which gave me the greater pleasure, 
because I have the satisfaction to know that, so great is 
your deserved interest with his most sacred majesty King 
George (whom God long preserve), that you might very 
probably be the first, under God and the king, in effecting 
for us so great a blessing. 

"And suffer me farther to say, that there is not 
one Jacobite or disaffected person in this colony, nor 
above two or three, that I know of, in America. But, 
for want of a loyal and orthodox bishop to inspect us, we 
lie open to be misled into the wretched maxims of that 
abandoned set of men, as well as a great many other per- 
verse principles. 

" May God, therefore, direct your thoughts, and second 
your pious endeavors, for effecting this or any other good 
work, that may contribute to the advancement or enlarge- 
ment of His Church ; and may I have an interest in your 

* See page 85. 



94 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

compassionate prayers and benedictions in the great task 

that lies upon me."* 

It will be useful to trace out more fully the rise of one 
of these churches in the New-England district."! At New- 
town, in Connecticut, a young and zealous Independent 
teacher, Beach by name, was at this time settled over a 
flourishing Congregational society. His ministry had been 
unusually successful, and he was himself the idol of his 
flock. Once in three months the Rev. Mr. Johnson visited 
five episcopalian families then settled in the place : frequent 
meetings and earnest discussions between the two teachers 
resulted from these visits ; until Mr. Beach began at length 
to doubt the soundness of his former principles. Slowly 
and cautiously did he make up his mind. The first serious 
alarm was suggested to his flock, after two or three years 
of patient meditation had passed over him, by his frequently 
employing the Lord's Prayer in public worship, and even 
proceeding to read to them whole chapters of the word of 
God. Then he ventured to condemn a custom common in 
their meetings, of rising to bow to the preacher as he came 
in amongst them ; instead of which, he begged them to 
kneel down and worship God. This, in the language of 
the day, they declared to be " rank popery," and no slight 
presumption that Mr. Beach would one day "turn Church- 
man ; as did all people," said an experienced matron of 
their body, "who kept on reading the Church books." In 
this, at least, they were not deceived ; for in about a year 
Mr. Beach, whose mind was now thoroughly convinced, 
told the people from the pulpit, that, "from a serious and 
prayerful examination of the Scriptures, and of the writers 
of the earliest ages of the Church, and from the universal 
acknowledgment of episcopal government for 1500 years, 
compared with the recent establishment of Presbyterian and 
Congregational discipline, he was fully convinced of the 
invalidity of his ordination, and of the unscriptural method 
of organising and governing congregations, and of admitting 

* Dated " Stratford in Connecticut, ISTew England, Jan. 18, 
1723-4." 

f This account is taken from a series of original papers, which 
appeared in 1822-23 in the Churchman's Magazine, Hartford, U. S. 



PURITAN OPPOSITION. 95 

persons to the privileges of church-membership, as by them 
practised ; and farther, that extempore prayer in Christian 
assemblies was a novelty in the Christian Church." He 
therefore, "in the face of Almighty God, had made up his 
mind to conform to the Church of England, as being apos- 
tolic in her ministry and discipline, orthodox in her doctrine, 
and primitive in her worship . " He " affectionately exhorted 
them to weigh the subject well ; engaged to provide for the 
due administration of the sacraments while he was absent 
from them, and spoke of his intended return to them from 
England in holy orders." 

So greatly was he beloved, that a large proportion of his 
people seemed ready to acquiesce hi his determination. But 
such a threatened defection the Congregational teachers of 
the neighborhood could not see with unconcern. They set 
themselves at once to stir up the embers of intestine strife 
against their awakening brother, and at length assembled 
at Newtown, in 1732, and in spite of Mr. Beach's remon- 
strances, proceeded to depose him from the ministry. From 
this sprang up a printed discussion between Mr. Beach and 
his deposers ; carried on with kindness, sobriety, and force 
of reasoning on his part, and with no little harshness of 
invective upon theirs. 

Thus, in one of these attacks, after many charges against 
Mr. Beach, the author closes with a general condemnation 
of the English Church, as an "illegitimate daughter of the 
harlot of Babylon;" and describes her bishops as "the most 
vile and wretched set of beings that ever disgraced human 
nature." 

Nor was this all. Under the auspices of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, Mr. Beach had opened a 
mission to a small tribe of native Indians. God had blessed 
his labors, and amongst these despised men a little flock was 
being gathered into Christ's true fold. This the Congrega- 
tional teachers could not endure. The Indians were shrewd 
enough to meet their occasional attempts at conversion 
with the plea of their own multiform divisions. " We va- 
lue not your gospel, which shows so many roads to Kick- 
tang (God): some of them must be crooked, and lead to 
holbamockow" (the evil spirit). But the sectarian teachers 



96 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

could not endure that Episcopalians should convert these 
heathens to the truth. They sent, therefore, an agent 
amongst Mr. Beach's flock, with ribald ballads, suited to 
the native taste, decrying him and all his efforts. And 
when the good man next visited his native flock, instead 
of receiving from the Sachem the calumet of peace, and 
finding a circle of attentive listeners, eager to drink in his 
words, he was met by the taunts and derision which the 
heathens had been too industriously taught. 

These violent proceedings defeated in qpreat measure 
their intended purpose. The claims of the Church became 
the subject of general discussion. The eyes of many were 
opened ; and from the first a small but growing company 
clave to Mr. Beach. Soon after, he set sail for England, 
bearing with him the following testimonial from his brethren 
hi Connecticut. 

"Mr. Beach," it says, "had his education at Yale 
College, where he made uncommon proficiency in learning, 
and hath, since he left it, taken care to improve himself 
in divnuty and other useful studies, and when he entered 
into the dissenting ministry (which was indeed almost the 
unavoidable consequence of his education and want of 
proper books) he was thought the most proper person to 
oppose the growth of the Church in Newtown, on account of 
the good opinion that every one had of his learning and 
piety, and was accordingly placed there, — though he never 
did anything to the Church's prejudice. But having since, 
by his neighborhood to some of us, had the advantage of 
better books and information, he hath found it his duty to 
quit their service and come over to our communion, where- 
hj he hath done great service to the Church in these parts, 
and we doubt not will always be an honor to it, if your 
lordship shall think fit to ordain him, and the honorable 
society to admit him into their service. And as we are 
well assured his labors will be of great use here, so we beg 
leave to assure your lordship of his firm attachment to the 
present government as established in the illustrious house 
of Hanover. Upon the whole, therefore, we humbly hope 
your lordship and the honorable society will think fit to 
empower and employ him, who for the peace of his con- 



whitefield's visit. 97 

science hath left the possessions he enjoyed, and now taken 
a long and dangerous voyage, melancholy in itself, but 
rendered more so by his leaving his wife and children." 

The prayer of his brethren was granted, and he re- 
turned in holy orders to Connecticut. In a little while a 
church was built for him ; in which, and in the neighbor- 
ing town of Reading, he ministered as a missionary of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to a faithful and 
devoted flock. 

In this State things continued till the time of Mr. 
Whitefield's visit to New-England. Here, as elsewhere, 
his preaching produced wonderful effects. He found the 
flame of piety already burning low amongst the Independ- 
ent congregations ; for in the institutions of no separatist 
from the Church has the gift of enduring spiritual vitality 
been found. He boldly charged them with having left 
" the platform" of their ancient doctrines, and reviled them 
in his sermons under the unwelcome titles of " hirelings 
and dumb dogs, half beasts and half devils." He endea- 
vored to revive the ancient spirit by a series of violent ex- 
citements. The Independent teachers betook themselves 
to penal inflictions, subjecting itinerants to heavy penalties, 
and excluding them from the protection of the laws. But 
the flame only burned the fiercer for this opposition. Fana- 
ticism in its maddest forms triumphed for a while ; intro- 
ducing new divisious in its train, and leading many into 
the "open profession of Antinomian tenets. These scenes 
are thus described in the letter of an eye-witness :# 

" The duties and labors of my mission are exceedingly 
increased by the surprising enthusiasm, or what is worse, 
that rages among us : the centre of which is the place of 
my residence. Since Mr. Whitefield was in this country 
there have been a great number of vagrant preachers, the 
most remarkable of whom is Mr. Davenport, of Long Isl- 
and, who came to New London in July, pronounced their 
ministers unconverted, and by his boisterous behaviour and 
vehement crying, ' Come to Christ,' many were struck, 
as the phrase is, and made the most terrible and affecting 

* To the Bishop of London. Fulham mss. 
5 



98 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

noise, that was heard a mile from the place. He came to 
this society, acted in the same manner five days, and was 
followed by great numbers ; some could not endure the 
house, saying that it seemed to them more like the infernal 
regions than the place of worshipping the God of heaven. 
Many, after the amazing horror and distress that seized 
them, received comfort (as they term it) ; and five or six 
of these young men in this society are continually going 
about, especially in the night, converting, as they call it, 
their fellow-men. Two of them, as their minister and they 
affirm, converted above two hundred in an Irish town 
about twenty miles back in the country. Their meetings 
are almost every night in this and the neighboring parishes ; 
and the most astonishing effects attend them, — screechings, 
faintings, convulsions, visions, apparent death for twenty 
or thirty hours, actual possessions with evil spirits, as they 
own themselves ; this spirit in all is remarkably bitter 
against the Church of England. Two, who were struck, 
and proceeded in this way of exhorting and praying, until 
they were actually possessed, came to me and asked the 
questions they all do : Are you born again ? Have you 
the witness of the Spirit ? They used the same texts of 
Scripture as the rest, taught the same doctrines, called me 
Beelzebub the prince of devils, and during their possession 
burnt a large amount of property. They have since both 
been to me, asked my forgiveness, and bless God that He 
has restored them to the spirit of a sound mind. 

" There are at least twenty or thirty of these lay 
holders-forth within ten miles of my house, who hold their 
meetings every night in the week in some place or other, 
excepting Saturday night ; and incredible pains are taken 
to seduce and draw away the members of my church ; but, 
blessed be God, we still rather increase."* 

The result of this sudden excitement was by no means 
favorable to the ruling sect. " The Independents or Con- 
gregationalists," Mr. Johnson reports, " are miserably har- 
assed with controversies amongst themselves, at the same 
time that they unite against the Church. One great cause 

* Fulham mss. 



THE CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT. 99 

of their quarrels is the Arminian, Calvinistic, Antinomian, 
and enthusiastic controversies, which run high amongst 
them, and create great feuds and factions ; and these chiefly 
occasion the great increase of the Church, as they put 
thinking and serious persons upon coming over to it, from 
no other motive than the love of truth and order, and a 
sense of duty ; at which they are much enraged, though 
they themselves are the chief occasion of it*"* " When 
I came here there were not a hundred adult persons of the 
Church in this whole colony,! whereas now there are con- 
siderably more than two thousand, and at least five or six 
thousand young and old ; and since the progress of this 
strange spirit of enthusiasm, it seems daily very much in- 
creasing. "$ 

From such fierce divisions many learned to value the 
peaceful and holy shelter of the Church ; and Mr. Beach 
received so large an accession to his charge, that his church 
would not hold two-thirds of those who joined him. JNTot 
a few of these were of the first families within the colony, 
and a new and spacious building was soon erected for him. 
The same causes led to the building of eight other churches 
within different neighboring towns, and to the best amongst 
the Independent teachers joining his communion and re- 
ceiving holy orders. 

Here was plainly the finger of God. In the violent 
divisions of those times, as well as in the deadness which 
preceded them, were the elements of that Socinian leaven 
which has since worked so fatally throughout those parts ; 
leading in 1821 to the choice of the chaplain to the na- 
tional legislature from the ranks of that most unhappy sect. 
Yet, in establishing the Church, these very evils were so 
overruled by God as to furnish their own antidote. 

In Connecticut her roots took a deeper hold in the soil, 
from the action of the storms amongst which she had grown 
up. In no part of America was her communion so pure 
and apostolical as here. Her clergy were, for the most 

* Letter of the Rev. S. Johnson to the Bishop of London. Fulham 

MSS. 

t Stratford, in New-England. 
\ Fulham mss. 



100 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



part, natives — men of earnest piety, of settled character, 
and well established in Church principles ; and so greatly 
did she flourish, that at the outbreak of the troubles which 
ended in the separation of the colonies and mother country, 
there was every reason for believing that another term of 
twenty years' prosperity, such as she had last enjoyed, 
would have brought full half the population of the state 
within her bosom. 

A contemporary writer, professing himself "unable to 
recollect the names of the multifarious religious sects" then 
existing in Connecticut, adds the following list " of a few 
of the most considerable." 











Congregations. 


Episcopalians . . . . . 73 


Scotch Presbyterians 








1 


Sandemanians 








1 


Sandemanians Bastard 








1 


Lutherans . 








1 


Baptists 








6 


Seven-day do. 








1 


Quakers 








4 


Davisonians 








1 


Separatists . 








40 


Rogereens . 








1 


Bowlists 








1 


Old Lights . 








80 


New Lights 








87 



So greatly had the Church gained upon the sects around 
her, through the zeal and piety which here adorned her 
members. 

But this is far the brightest spot in the whole picture. 
Here and there, indeed, throughout the continent individual 
zeal imparted life and warmth to separate congregations. 
But altogether there are few of the marks of the Church 
Catholic impressed in that age upon the English branch of 
it settled in America. Seldom, if ever, was she zealous 
and full of love and holy union inwardly, and to those 
without " terrible as an army with banners.*' There was 
a general languor of devotion ; sects and divisions multiplied 



WHITEFIELD IN VIRGINIA. 101 

and often gained upon the Church ; her own sons grew 
careless or apostates, and scarcely anything was done to 
bring the Indian tribes around her to the knowledge of her 
Lord. All this may be traced most easily in the history of 
Virginia, where from different causes it was most signally 
developed. A hasty sketch of such a painful subject will 
be all that is required. 

From a contemporary writer* it appears, that in the 
year ] 722 there were in Virginia not fewer than seventy 
churches, with dwelling-houses and glebes for the incum- 
bent in almost every parish. Dissent was scarcely known; 
since it is still a matter of dispute, whether there were in 
the whole country three meetings of (Quakers and one of 
Presbyterians, or whether one of Quakers stood alone. 
"For one hundred and fifty years," Dr. Hawks complains, 
"the Church had been fixed in Virginia, and yet the state 
of religion was deplorably low." " Many of the clergy 
were unfitted for their stations ;" and the laity, from " loose 
principles and immoral practices, were often a scandal to 
their country and religion." Here and there a light sprung 
up, as in the case of Morgan Morgan, a humble and zeal- 
ous layman, through whose labors the faith was planted in 
the newer western settlements, amongst a population com- 
posed chiefly of Presbyterian emigrants from Ireland. It 
was in the year 1740 that he erected the first church on 
the south side of the Potomac, in the valley of Virginia. 
But such men were rare ; while for the most part all was 
lethargy. 

In this state Mr. "Whitefield found religion in the colony. 
As an English clergyman he was readily received, and at 
the desire of Dr. Blair, then commissary for the bishop of 
London, he preached at the seat of government and else- 
where. He was here far more restrained, and proportion- 
ably useful, than amidst the wild sectarian wastes of the 
New-England colonies. His efforts kindled some zeal 
amongst a lukewarm people ; but his addresses, which were 
made too exclusively to the mere emotions of his hearers, 
and not sufficiently directed to the general revival of a 

* Present State of Virginia, by Rev. Hugh Jones. 



102 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

drooping Church, laid few or no foundations for a really 
permanent result. The feelings of the moment passed 
away with the passing voice which had awakened them ; 
and left, it must be feared, the hearts which they had inef- 
fectually visited even colder than they were before. No 
lasting blessings seem to have followed from these labors. 
Soon after his visit, earnest but irregular attempts for the 
diffusion of religion were made throughout the eastern dis- 
tricts by a pious layman of the name of Morris. These, 
after a little, led to the settlement in various parts of Pres- 
byterian teachers from New-England. At first the local 
government objected to their entrance ; but under the pro- 
visions of the act of toleration they made good their footing, 
and by a more apparent earnestness drew away many 
from the Church. With them the Anabaptists, a few of 
whom had come long since from England, now rose into 
notice. They had recently been strengthened by allies 
from Maryland ; and they now appeared in force, ready to 
join with any adversary of the Church. 

The time of their appearance was propitious for their 
purpose. The endowment of the clergy of the colony, from 
very early times, consisted of a certain fixed weight of to- 
bacco, the staple produce of the land. Some years before 
this time, a failing harvest had so greatly raised its price, 
as to make this mode of payment burdensome, and a fixed 
money-payment had been substituted for it until the scar- 
city was over. To this expedient another threatened failure 
of the crop shortly afterwards again inclined the colonial 
legislature. But the act was disallowed at home, and the 
clergy disputed its authority by legal process. The 
courts of law decided in their favor ; but when damages 
came to be assessed, the jury, predisposed by popular 
impression, and wrought on by a sudden burst of eloquence 
from the opposing counsel, awarded such as were merely 
nominal. The court, under the same influence, refused 
another trial ; and the clergy lost alike their rights and the 
little which remained to them of the affections of the peo- 
ple. So rapid at this time was the progress of dissent, that 
a few years later it claimed, as belonging to its ranks, two- 
thirds of all the population. All things, indeed, were out 



WANT OF ENDOWMENTS. 103 

of joint. Ill a country containing not less than half a mil- 
lion souls (all of them professing the Christian religion, and 
a majority of them members of the Church of England, 
living under British govenment and laws, and in general 
thriving, if not opulent), there was yet not a single college, 
and only one school with an endowment adequate to the 
maintenance of even a common mechanic.^ Two-thirds 
of all the little education of the colony was given by indented 
servants or transported felons. 

The causes of this state of things are well worth ex- 
amination. Some of them were evidently peculiar to Virgi- 
nia, in which and in Maryland alone such questions on the 
rights of property could have arisen. But in other parts 
matters were not, on the whole, much better. Nowhere 
was the Church flourishing and spreading. Everywhere 
division multiplied. Baptists, Presbyterians, Moravians, 
Methodists, Tunkers, Shakers, Quakers, Socinians, and 
Infidels, grew daily in importance, and shed on every side 
of them the fruitful seed of farther subdivision. In 1729, 
Berkeley found at Newport, in Rhode Island, " a mixed 
kind of inhabitants, consisting of many sects and subdivi- 
sions of sects ; four sorts of Anabaptists, besides Presbyte- 
rians, Quakers, Independents, and many of no profession at 
all."t To the northward and eastward of Maryland there 
were but eighty parochial clergymen ; and all of these, 
except in the towns of Boston and Newport, New- York 
and Philadelphia, were missionaries sent out from England 
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 

The best calculation of the numbers of the white popu- 
lation, and of the various religious persuasions on the con- 
tinent of North America, transmitted to the Bishop of 
London,$ in 1761, gave the following results: — 

* Boucher's American Revolution, pp. 183, 184. 
f Berkeley's Letters, p. xxxvii 
% Fulham mss. 



104 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 









i 
Presbyte- 


Quakers 
German & 






Church 
People. 


rians and 


Dutch of 


North American Continent. 


Whites. 


Independ- 
ents. 


various 
sects, 










Jews, Pa- 










pists, &c. 


Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 


25,000 


13,000 


6,000 


6,000 


Four New-England Colonies 










New Hampshire . 30,000 










Msssachusetts . . 250,000 










Rhode Island . 35,000 










Connecticut . . 120,000 










, 


435,000 


40.000 


250.000 


145,000 


New-York .... 


100,000 


25.000 


20,000 


55,000 


New Jersey .... 


100.000 


16,000 


40,000 


44,000 i 


Pennsylvania 


280,000 ! 65.000* 


45,000 


170,000f 


Maryland .... 


60,000 36.000 


6,000 


18.000+ 


Virginia .... 


80 000 ; 00,000 


10,000 


10,000 


North Carolina 


36,000 ! 16,000 


9,000 


9,000 


South Carolina 

Georgia . . . . 

Total 


22,000 ) ! on nrm 

eloooj' 20 ' 000 


5,000 


3,000 


1,144,000, 293,000 


391,000 i 460,000 
herans, who reckon 


* This includes 40,000 Swede 


?s and Gorman Lut 


their service, &c. the same as tha 


of the Church. 






t About a third of these are 


Quakers, about 10.000 Papists 


, the rest 


Germans of various sects. 








X Chiefly Papists. 









Some general cause there must have been for such a 
state of things. The power of Christ's truth could not be 
worn out. That church which had hitherto subdued all 
people, rude or polished, against whom she had gone forth, 
had she lost her empire over men's hearts? She who had 
conquered the conquerors of the great Roman empire, and 
gathered one and another of the hordes of Gothic and Teu- 
tonic blood, who had invaded her dominion, into the faith 
and hope of the people whom they conquered, — she seemed 
in the West not only to have lost her subduing might, but 
to be powerless even to retain her hold upon her own. 

It is not very difficult to find the cause for this great 
difference. Her planting in America had been after a new 
and unknown manner. Heretofore the great aim of her 
founders, in any country, had been to make her truly indi- 
genous — to reproduce her out of the people amongst whom 
she had come. For this end she was sent forth complete, 



DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING ORDINATION. 105 

—a living germ, with all the powers of reproduction in 
herself. To this, as the greatest work of Christians, the 
boldest and truest hearts were summoned ; and he who 
won and held a hand of converts to her Lord, was conse- 
crated bishop of the Church amongst them, if he went not 
out in that holy character. Thus he could at once ordain 
new pastors and evangelists from amongst his native con- 
verts. Through them he could extend his influence : at 
their mouths the truths he taught, coming to the hearers 
in the beloved tongue of their fathers' land, were listened 
to with new readiness. Their blood, if persecution arose, 
was at once the seed of new converts : the Church was 
perfect and complete, and she went on conquering and to 
conquer. Such was the equipment of Pothinus of old, 
when with Irenseus as his deacon, he went from Asia to 
sow amongst the Gauls the seed of the kingdom ; and the 
Church of Lyons was his glorious harvest. So Boniface 
went forth from this land of ours, to become " the apostle 
of Germany." But wholly unlike this was our equipment 
of the Church in America. We sent out individual teachers, 
with no common bond of visible unity, no directing head, 
no power of ordaining ; we maintained them there like the 
garrison of a foreign Church ; and the consequence was, 
what might have been foretold, the Church languished and 
almost passed away. To this fault the religious evils of 
that land may be distinctly traced. Throughout the 
northern colonies the scattered missionaries, whom the 
venerable society sent out and paid, — who had no connex- 
ion with each other, no common head, and no co-operation 
in their work, — were the representatives of the body of 
foreigners across the ocean who supported and directed 
them. And even in the southern colonies, where the 
Church was established with provincial endowments, the 
want of bishops produced the same effect. There was no 
power of obtaining ordination in America : hence any young 
Americans, who desired to enter the ministry, must cross 
the Atlantic to receive holy orders. This was both costly 
and perilous. One hi five, it has been calculated, of all 
who set out returned no more.^ Hence in a new country, 
* The sinall-pox was exceedingly fatal to Americans who visited 
*5 



106 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

where every sort of employment abounded, few parents 
devoted their children to the work of the ministry. The 
earliest bent was given in a contrary direction. The native 
candidates were therefore few ; whilst of those who were 
sent out from England, some, in spite of every care at home, 
would be those whose characters were most unfit for such 
a post, — who proposed themselves for that peculiar service 
because they desired to escape the vigilance of Episcopal 
control. This brought a reproach upon the priesthood ; 
and the proper check on clerical unfitness being thus want- 
ing, the people began to substitute another. Upon any 
vacancy, the governor and commissary recommended a 
successor to a Virginian benefice. The vestry received the 
minister so sent, and he then officiated in their church. 
If they chose, they might present him for induction to the 
governor ; and when inducted, he had full and legal pos- 
session of the benefice. But the common practice was to 
receive the minister, and give him in possession the fruits 
of the benefice, without presenting him for due induction ; 
and then the vestry could dismiss him when they chose. 
This seems to have been meant at first to guard the people 
from unworthy pastors. From the nature of the case, 
there could be scarcely any other check on such men. The 
Bishop of London, indeed, had his commissaries in Ame- 
rica ; but their limited power and derived authority could 
do little when their principal was on the other side of the 
Atlantic. Nor was the power of the Bishop of London 
himself over those distant provinces certain or well defined. 
Whence it had first sprung is exceedingly uncertain. The 
most probable account attributes it to the hearty concur- 
rence of the then Bishop of London in the earliest schemes 
of the Virginian Company for establishing the Church 
amongst their settlers. This led to his being requested to 
find and appoint their first clergy ; and from this practice 
there gradually grew up a notion that there were m some 
way in his. diocese. Thus, Bishop Compton wrote, in 

England. Within a very few years, seven candidates for orders 
from the northern colonies died during their absence from America. 
Amongst these was the son of Dr. Johnson, mentioned above, p. 85, 
who sunk under the small-pox. 



BISHOP OF LONDON S COLONIAL JURISDICTION. 107 

March 1676, " As the care of your churches, with the rest 
of the plantations, lies upon me as your diocesan, so to dis- 
charge that trust, I shall omit no occasions of promoting 
their good and interest."^ 

Such the practice continued until the appointment of 
Bishop Gibson to the see of London. Upon inquiring into 
the source of his authority, he was told, that, though no 
strict ecclesiastical title could be found, yet by an order in 
council in the reign of Charles the Second, the colonies 
were ma.de a part of the see of London. For tins order 
he, being a careful man, caused a diligent search to be 
made, when he discovered that none such existed. Find- 
ing, therefore, no ground whatever on which to rest his 
claim of jurisdiction, he declined even to appoint a com- 
missary. Thus the colonies were separated from all Epis- 
copal control. But after a while, having obtained a spe- 
cial commission from the crown, committing this charge to 
him, and thinking it better, under all the circumstances of 
the case, to act under this authority than to abandon them 
entirely, he began to discharge it with his usual fidelity. 
Yet even then he felt that his hold upon those distant parts 
was little what it should be, if he were indeed to deem 
himself their bishop. Every line of his first address to 
themf breathes this spirit. 

" Being called," he tells them, " by the providence of 
God to the government and administration of the diocese 
of London, by which the care of the churches in the foreign 
plantations is also devolved upon me, I think it my duty 
to use all proper means of attaining a competent knowledge 
of the places, persons, and matters entrusted to my care. 
And as the plantations, and the constitutions of the churches 
there, are at a far greater distance, and much less known 
to me, than the affairs of my diocese here at home, so it is 
the more necessary for me to have recourse to the best and 
most effectual methods of coming to a right knowledge of 
the state and condition of them. Which knowledge I shall 
not fail, by the grace of God, faithfully to employ to the 
service of piety and religion, and to the maintenance of 

* Fulham mss. t Dated Nov. 2, 1723, 



108 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

order and regularity in the Church." He then furnishes 
a paper of inquiries, and promises his " best advice and as- 
sistance, in order to the successful and comfortable discharge 
of their ministerial function." 

This authority, shadowy as it was, expired with the 
life of Bishop Gibson ; since the commission under which 
he acted was granted only to himself personally, and not 
to his successors.* How little it sufficed to maintain any 
form of discipline was shown in the fearful laxity of con- 
duct which was visible on every side. Thus, at this very 
time, the marriage-licenses, which, by a first stretch of prin- 
ciple, had been granted to any "Protestant minister," in- 
stead of the authorized clergy, were now ;< expounded to 
intend a justice of the peace, as being a minister of justice, 
and a Protestant by religion ;"t and they accordingly took 
upon them to marry all applicants at their own pleasure, 
No one felt this want of discipline more keenly than the 
Bishop of London. But it was beyond his power to remedy 
the evil ; and, as is commonly the case where the true 
safeguard provided by the Church is carelessly neglected, 
men began to invent others for themselves. Thus, in the 
state of Maryland, where the scandal of ill-living clergy- 
men had risen to a fearful height, acts were passed by the 
provincial assemblies subjecting the clergy to the jurisdic- 
tion of a board of laymen, or mingled laymen and clergy- 
men. It was in vain that men of the highest character 
amongst the clergy exclaimed against a proposal so utterly 
at variance with all ecclesiastical principle. The pressing 
evil was keenly felt ; and in the absence of the true Church- 
remedy, they sought another for themselves. This law 
they would have carried into operation, if it had not been 
defeated by the opposition of the governor on grounds of 
state-policy. 

* Bishop Sherlock, in 1749, tells Dr. Johnson that he will appoint 
a commissary " as soon as I take a proper authority from the king, 
which I have hitherto delayed, in hopes of seeing another and better 

settlement of ecclesiastical affairs in the country I am persuaded 

that no bishop residing in England ought to have, or will willingly 
undertake the province." — Life of Dr. Johnson, pp. 131-2. 

f Fulham mss. 



RESISTANCE TO THE CLERGY. 109 

So also it was in Virginia. To secure that which law- 
ful authority should have provided for them, the vestries 
at first desired to try their pastors before they confirmed 
their full appointment. And this, as was natural, soon 
grew into a great abuse. The vestries were now the 
masters of the clergy. On the most paltry or unworthy 
grounds they changed their minister. If he testified with 
boldness against any prevalent iniquity, the people whom 
his zeal offended soon rid themselves of so disagreeable a 
monitor. Hence ecclesiastical appointments in the colony 
grew into disrepute. Few would accept such uncertain 
stations; and those few were led to do so by necessity. 
Thus the clergy declined both in numbers and character. 
From this sprang another evil. The lack of clergy led to 
a general employment of lay readers. These lay readers 
were naturally taken from a lower class than the ordained 
clergy ; they were also natives. It was not difficult for 
them to insinuate themselves into the regard of the con- 
gregations which they served ; and it happened frequent- 
ly that the benefice was kept unfilled in order to prolong 
the more acceptable services of the unordained reader. 

Thus at every hand the Church was weakened. The 
laity were robbed of the sacraments, and led to choose 
their pastors on unworthy grounds. The clergy who came 
out were those least fitted for a work which, far more than 
that of ordinary stations, required the highest gifts of holy 
zeal and knowledge. For in Virginia causes of moral and 
social corruption were at work which nothing but the holy 
faith in its utmost vigor could counteract. From an early 
time the curse of slavery had rested upon Virginian so- 
ciety. Conditional servitude, under covenants, had been 
coeval with the first settlement of the colony. The emi- 
grant was bound to render to his master the full cost of 
his transportation. This led to a species of traffic in those 
who could be persuaded to embark. The speculation proved 
so lucrative that numbers soon took part in it ; since men 
might be imported at a cost of eight pounds, who would 
afterwards be sold in the colony for forty pounds.^ So 

* Smith, i. 105. Bullock's Virginia, p. 14, quoted by Bancroft. 



110 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

established became this evil, that white men were pur- 
chased on shipboard as horses are bought at a fair.^ This 
under the rule of the Parliament, was the fate of the roy- 
alist prisoners of the battle of Worcester. To this was 
added in 1620 negro slavery, which differed from indented 
serviture in being perpetual instead of for a term of years, 
and in the degradations which the distinctive features of 
the race of Ham soon associated with it. Marriage was 
early forbidden, under ignominious penalties, between the 
races of the master and the slave ;t and the grievous so- 
cial evils which follow the dishonor of humanity sprung 
up freely around. " All servants, "J was the enactment 
of 1670, " not being Christians, imported into this coun- 
try by shipping, shall be slaves ;" yet it was added, " con- 
version to the Christian faith doth not make free." The 
death of a slave from extremity of correction was not ac- 
counted felony ; and it was made lawful for '* persons 
pursuing fugitive colored slaves to wound or even to kill 
them." 

The evils which such laws attest and aggravate were 
yet more exasperated by the whole character of the first 
centuries of Virginian life. Whilst the New-England settlers 
were early gathered into villages, and even towns, the 
Virginian landowners dwelt apart from one another, each 
one a petty despot over his indented servants and his 
slaves. Bridle-ways were their roads ;§ bridges were un- 
known ; and the widely scattered population met at most 
but once on the Lord's Day for worship, and often not at 
all ; while the remoter families could rarely find their way 
through the mighty forests to the distant walls of their 
church. Education was almost neglected. " Every 
man," said the governor, in 1671,11 " instructs his children 
according to his ability ;" and what this instruction was, 
may be gathered from another of his sayings ; "I thank 
God there are no free-schools nor printers ; and I hope we 
shall not have them these hundred years." 

In such a state of things religion could not flourish, 

* Bancroft, i. 177". f Henry, i. 146. quoted by Bancroft, 

X Bancroft, ii. 193. § lb. p. 212, Ac. | lb. p. 192. 



Want of bishops. Ill 

and a ministry already depressed was sure to sink into 
absolute debasement. The Church was best served by 
those ministers, as we hare seen, whom she had gained 
over in New England from the ranks of Congregational 
dissent ; for these were natives of the land, trained to the 
work, and men of earnest zeal and self-denying love of 
truth. But here, too, the want of bishops and the whole 
Church-system was lamentably felt. The sectaries around 
them possessed each their own system, such as it was, in 
perfection : they could appoint and send out teachers ; 
gather in the young and active to the work ; hold their 
synods and conventions ; act, in short, as a living and or* 
ganised body. "It is hard," was the complaint of Church* 
men at the time, " that these large and increasing disper- 
sions of the true Protestant English Church should not be 
provided with bishops, when our enemies, the Homan 
Catholics of France and Spam, find their account in it to 
provide them for theirs. Even Canada, which is scarce 
bigger than some of our provinces, has her bishop ; not to 
mention the little whimsical sect of Moravians, who also 
have theirs. "^ " The poor Church of America is worse 
off in this respect than any of her adversaries. The 
Presbyterians have come a great way to lay hands on one 
another (though, after all, they had as good stay at home, 
for the good they do) ; the Independents are called by 
their sovereign lord the people ; the Anabaptists and 
Quakers pretend to the Spirit : but the poor Church has 
nobody upon the spot to comfort or confirm her children, 
— nobody to ordain such as are willing to serve ; there- 
fore they fall back into the hands of the dissenters."! 
These complaints were but too well founded. Only that 
communion which clave close to the apostolic model was on 
all sides cramped and weakened : without the centre of 
visible unity — without the direction of common efforts — 
without the power of confirming the young, whilst it 
taught the young that there was a blessing in the very 
rite which it withheld from them — without the power of 
ordination, whilst it maintained that it was needful for a 

* Fulham mss. f Fulham mss. 



112 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

true succession of the priesthood, — declaring, by its own 
teaching, its maimed and imperfect condition, and feeling 
it practically at every turn. 

" There is a dispute amongst our clergy," says Mr. 
Johnson,^ applying for directions from the Bishop of Lon- 
don, " relating to the exhortation after baptism to the 
godfather, to bring the child to the bishop to be confirmed. 
Some wholly omit this exhortation, because it is imprac- 
ticable ; others insert the words ' if there be opportunity,' 
because our adversaries object it as a mere jest to order 
the godfather to bring the child to the bishop when there 
is not one within a thousand leagues of us, which is a re- 
proach that we cannot answer." 

At any time, and under any circumstances, such a 
state of things must have been widely and fatally per- 
nicious. But in this case the injury was even more than 
usually great. Many causes had been in operation, from 
the era of the Reformation, which tended to make the 
bishops the only external centres of vigorous and united 
action in the English Church. From changes in the body 
politic, from the weakening of her synods and councils, and 
from the loneliness of her condition, almost every element of 
outward strength and visible unity was now centred hi the 
episcopal office. The clergy, therefore, of such a Church, 
when set down in the far West, without a bishop nearer 
than the see of London, were at once reduced to the ut- 
most extremity of weakness. They had no other lines oi 
strength upon which to fall back to rally and re-form their 
broken ranks ; and they became thus single-handed com- 
batants, instead of marching in combined phalanx against 
a common scattered foe. Deeply was this felt by the 
most earnest and spiritual amongst them ; and moving, of- 
tentimes, were their entreaties to the Church, which had 
thus put them forth unfitted for their charge, to send them 
over the succession of the apostolical episcopate. 

Year after year their lamentations and entreaties 
crossed the Atlantic. "We beg,"f they write at onetime 
to the Bishop of London, " your fatherly compassion on 

* Fulham mss. 

f From New-London in Connecticut. Fulham mss. 



THE CHURCH LANGUISHING. 113 

our truly pitiable circumstances ; we are forty-four miles 
from the nearest Church of England to us the in- 
cumbent of which hath visited us four times a year. There 
have been several adults and infants baptised amongst us, 
.... and a church raised, which we hope to have finished 
by the next fall. We have never, shice our first settle- 
ment, had the Gospel of Christ, or its comfortable sacra- 
ments, regularly administered to us by any episcopal min- 
ister ; whereby sundry persons bred up in the Church of 
England at home, others that have been baptised here and 
become conformists, and a greater number still strongly 
inclined to conformity, do labor under that last and most 
grievous unhappiness of being left ourselves and leaving 
our posterity in this wilderness, excluded as wild unculti- 
vated trees, from the saving benefits of a transplantation 
into your soundest part of the Holy Catholic Church." 

Similar appeals were sent from all parts of the Conti- 
nent. " The Church," they say, "is daily languishing 
for want of bishops." " Some that were born of the Eng- 
lish have never heard the name of Christ, and many 
others who were baptised into Iris name have fallen away 
to heathenism, quakerism, and atheism, for want of con- 
firmation." * "It seems the strangest thing in the world, 
and it is thought history cannot parallel it, that any place 
which has received the Word of God so many years should 
still remain altogether in the wilderness as sheep without 
a shepherd." " There never was so large a tract of the 
earth overspread with Christians without so much as one 
bishop, nor ever a country wherein bishops were more 
wanted."! "We have several countries, islands, and 
provinces, which have hardly an orthodox minister among 
them, which might have been supplied, had we been so 
happy as to see a bishop apud Americanos." "Above all 
things, we need a bishop for the connrrning the baptised, and 
giving orders to such as are willing and well qualified to 
receive them ; there being a considerable number of actual 
preachers and others, of Xew England education, well dis- 
posed to serve in the ministry."! " We have been deprived 

* S. P. G. mss. f FulhamMss. % 1705. S. P. G. mss. 



114 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of the advantages that might have been received of some 
Presbyterian and Independent ministers that formerly were, 
and of others that are still, willing to conform and receive 
the holy character, for want of a bishop to give it." " Last 
year^ there went out, bachelors of arts, near twenty young 
men from the college, all or most of whom would gladly 
have accepted episcopal ordination, if we had been so 
happy as to have had a bishop of America, from whom 
they might have received it ; but being discouraged at the 
trouble and charge of coming to England, they accepted of 
authorities from the dissenting ministers, and are all dis- 
persed in that way." 

The pressing sense of these necessities forced them often 
to a passionate earnestness of entreaty. "We pray God," 
they write,! " to inspire the government with compassion 
towards this country, to the taking away our reproach 
amongst the adversaries of our Church." ""We speak the 
wish of great multitudes of souls in this land, and the ne- 
cessities of a vast many more who perish for lack of super- 
vision." In " the miserable case of the country from this 
want," they " would be glad that a true episcopate might 
obtain amongst them in any shape." Thus one of them 
suggests to the Bishop of London, " whether one or other 
of the youngest and ablest of the bishops of the smaller 
dioceses might not be disposed to have a commission to 
visit these parts of the world, and spend a year or two 
among us ; and so from time to time, once hi about seven 
years, till a settlement could be had, duty being in the 
mean time done for the absent bishop by one of the neigh- 
boring bishops. This might answer many good ends, if 
nothing else could be done." " The presence and assist- 
ance of a bishop is most needful ; the baptised want to be 
confirmed ; his presence is necessary in the councils of 
these provinces, to prevent the inconveniences which the 
Cnurch labors under by the influence which seditious 
men's councils have upon the public administration, and 
the opposition which they make to the good inclinations 

* Rev. G-. Thorns, 1705: S,PG. mss. 

f From New-Haven, 1724 : Fulhani mss. 



CLERGY OF SPANISH A^IERICA 115 

of well-afFected persons. He is wanted not only to govern 
and direct us, but to cover us from the malignant effects 
of those misrepresentations that have been made by some 
persons."^ " We have great need of a bishop here, to 
visit all the Churches, to ordain some, to confirm others, 
and bless all/'t 

Letters and memorials from the colonies supply, for a 
whole century, a connected chain of such expostulations ; 
yet still the mother country was deaf to their entreaties. 
At home they were re-echoed from many quarters. Suc- 
ceeding archbishops pressed them on successive adminis- 
trations ; and the Society for the propagation of the Gos- 
pel, during almost every year, made some effort in the 
same cause. The records of these memorials show how 
earnestly and with what strength of argument it pressed 
this great cause upon the notice of the government. 

It may well seem strange that these prayers were never 
granted. England stood alone hi not establishing her 
Church in all its perfectness amongst her colonies. In 
Spanish America, whilst the crown had carefully excluded 
the power of the pope, securing to itself the appointment 
to all benefices, and not allowing any papal bull to be 
published which had not first been sanctioned by the royal 
council of the Indies, the greatest care was taken to set 
up amongst the colonists that form of faith and worship 
which, debased as it was, the mother country believed to 
be alone consistent with the truth. Thus a monastery had 
been established in New Spam within five years from its 
first settlement. And m 1649, about 120 years later, 
Davila estimates the staff of the Spanish Church in Ame- 
rica to have been — " 1 patriarch, 6 archbishops, 32 bishops, 
346 prebends, 2 abbotts, o royal chaplains, 840 convents." 
Besides these, there were a vast number of inferior clergy, 
secular as well as regulars, who were arranged in a three- 
fold division ; " curas," or parish priests, amongst the emi- 
grants from Spain, and their descendants : " doctrineics," 
to whom were entrusted the Indians who had submitted 
to the rule of Spain ; whilst for the fiercer tribes, to whom 

* Nov. 1705 : S. P. G. mss. f From New- York, 1702. 



116 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the civil arm had not yet reached, there were bands of 
" missioneros," who labored to reduce their untamed spirits 
to the faith. 

In these institutions, as Bishop Berkeley endeavored to 
enforce upon the nation, was a strong condemnation of 
the supineness of a people who held a purer faith, and did 
not in like manner exert themselves to spread it. For 
whatever was deemed needful for the Church's strength 
at home, that, as a Christian people, we are manifestly 
bound to give her in our colonies, where, upon the out- 
skirts and borders of Christendom, she needed arms for 
every service, and defence from every enemy. Yet. even 
from their earliest establishment, circumstances had led 
to this neglect. The first episcopal colonies were settled 
by private adventurers ; their beginnings were feeble and 
uncertain ; they proceeded on no general and matured 
plan, and their continued existence was long doubtful. 
They had no sooner gained some strength than the king 
resumed the charter he had given, by which they were 
removed from the control of those who valued their reli- 
gious interests, and fell into the hands of the courtiers of 
James L, who were then under Spanish influence, and 
therefore hostile to the extension of the English Church. 
Then followed the troubles of King Charles's reign, and the 
triumph of Dissenters in the great rebellion, ending hi the 
overthrow of throne and altar, both at home and in our 
colonies. After the restoration, the subject was not wholly 
overlooked. Lord Clarendon perceived its importance, 
and prevailed on Charles II. to appoint a Bishop of Vir- 
ginia, with a general charge over the other provinces. * 
Dr. Alexander Murray, a sharer in the royal exile, was 
selected for the office ; and a patent was made -out for 
his appointment by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, who was lord 
keeper from 1667 to 1672. But a change of ministers 
cut short the scheme. t The king, a concealed papist, 

* McVickar's Life of Hobart, pp. 177-218. 

t Archbishop Seeker says, in his letter to Horace "Walpole, it fell 
to the ground because the tax to support it was to be laid on the 
customs. Dr. Jonathan Boucher states that it was through the 
King's death. American Revolution, p. 92. 



CHARLES THE SECOND. 117 

could have had no warm affection for it ; and the reins of 
government which Clarendon relinquished fell into far 
different hands. 

His successors set themselves against all measures 
planned by him, and to this the Virginian "bishoprick was 
not likely to form an exception ; since of the five men who 
now absolutely ruled the state, two were infidels, two pa- 
pists, and the fifth a Presbyterian.* 

During the life of Charles, therefore, the scheme was 
dropped ; and James II. certainly would not resume it. 
Then came the troubles of the revolution and the reign of 
William III., when the divisions of the Church at home, 
as well as the temper of those to whom the conduct of 
affairs was entrusted, prevented further steps being taken 
in the matter. Other difficulties also had now arisen. 
Though petitions were repeatedly sent, both from the 
clergy and laity of the American episcopal community, 
entreating this Church and nation to grant them the 
episcopate, yet amongst their fellow-countrymen were 
found some objecting to their reasonable prayer. Many 
of the colonies had, as we have seen, been founded by 
dissenters ; and now they were multiplied in numbers, 
and grown into new sects of every name and form. The 
sending out of bishops would have been distasteful to 
them, and kindled the wrath of the upholders of dissent 
at home, whom William III. most sedulously courted. 
Our early neglect had made the line of present duty more 
difficult than ever ; so that the scheme was was for the 
time wholly laid aside. 

Queen Anne's accession promised better things ; and 
in her reign the project of an American episcopate was 
heartily resumed. 

The Society for the Propagation of the "Gospel still led the 
way hi the efforts which were made. As early as the 
year 1712, a committee was appointed "to consider of 
proper places for the residence, of the revenues, and me- 

* The first letters of whose names formed the word Cabal. Lord3 
Clifford and Arlington were papists, the Duke of Buckingham avow- 
edly an atheist, Sir T >V. Ashley (two years afterwards Lord Shaftes- 
bury) a deist, and Lord Lauderdale a presbyterian. 



i 18 AMERICAN CHTJHCH. 

thods of procuring bishops and bishoprics in America. M 
This committee sat from time to time ; and agreeing that 
it was i: a matter upon "which the interests of religion, 
and the success of the designs of the society, do greatly de- 
pend,"^ they moved both the body at large, and the 
archbishops and bishops especially, to proceed hi it with 
vigor. Several times they laid before the crown their earn- 
est representations of the great importance of the subject. 

Nor were they without the promise of immediate 
fruit. Q,ueen Anne was truly minded to be a nursing 
mother to the Church. Preparations were made for 
founding at once four bishoprics — two for the islands, and 
two for the continent of America. The society! prepared 
special subscription-rolls, towards raising a sum for the 
endowment of the sees ; and from many quarters they 
received munificent bequests for this especial purpose. 
They applied to the Q,ueen for the confiscated lands which 
had belonged to the popish clergy within the island of St. 
Kitt's, and received a most gracious answer in reply ; and 
hi 1712 they purchased Burlington House, within New 
Jersey, as the palace of one of the future bishops. 

But just when all seemed most certainly to promise 
the success for which they had so long been waiting, the 
death of the queen again frustrated their hopes. With 
the accession of King George the First, and the change of 
the government, a blight fell upon the hopes of the friends 
of the colonial Church. Still the venerable society made 
its voice of remonstrance heard. They represented to the 
new monarch that, " since the time of their incorporation, 
in the late reign, they had used their best endeavors to 
answer the end of their institution, by sending over, at 
their very great expense, ministers for the more regular ad- 
ministration of God's holy word and sacraments, together 
with schoolmasters, pious and useful books, to the planta- 
tions and colonies in America." They recited their for- 
mer arguments as to the great need of establishing colo- 
nial bishoprics, and with them the favorable answer they 

* Manuscript papers of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel. 

f February 21, 1718. MS. proceedings. 



DR. BERKELEY. 119 

had met with from the Queen. They entreated the King 
to carry out her unfulfilled intentions, and found four bi- 
shoprics, " that is to say, two for the care and superin- 
tendency of the islands, and as many for the continent." 

These entreaties and remonstrances were not confined 
to this society. Some were always found who were ready 
to urge this duty on the nation. Foremost amongst these 
stands Bishop Berkeley, whose noble devotion to this great 
cause deserves more than a mere passing notice. Posses- 
sed of a most subtle understanding, he had already ac- 
quired fame and eminence, when the spiritual destitution 
of America attracted his attention. A finished and trav- 
elled scholar ; the friend of Steele, and Swift, and Pope ; 
and hi possession of the deanery of Deny, — he was willing 
to renounce all, in order to redress this pressing evil. 
'•'There is a gentleman of this kingdom," writes Dr. 
Swift to the Lord-Lieutenant in 1724, " who is just gone 
to England ; it is Dr. George Berkeley, dean of Deny, the 

best preferment amongst us He is an absolute 

philosopher with regard to money, titles and power ; and 
for three years past hath been struck with a notion of 
founding an university at Bermuda by a charter from the 
crown. He hath seduced several of the hopefullest young 
clergymen and others here, many of them well provided 
for, and all of them in the fairest way of preferment ; but 
in England his conquests are greater, and I doubt will 
spread very far this whiter. He shewed me a little 
tract which he designs to publish ; and there your excel- 
lency will see his whole scheme of a life academico-pliilo- 
sophical, of a college founded for Indian scholars and 
missionaries, where he most exorbitantly proposeth a whole 
hundred a year for himself, forty ponnds for a fellow, and 
ten for a student. His heart will break if his deanery be 
not taken from him, and left to your excellency's disposal. 
I discourage him by the coldness of courts and ministers, 
who will interpret all this as impossible and a vision ; but 
nothing will do. And therefore I humbly entreat your 
excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one 
of the first men in this kingdom for learning and virtue 
quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his 



120 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

romantic design, which, however, is very noble and gene- 
rous, and directly proper for a great person of your excel- 
lent education to encourage." * 

On this errand Berkeley went to London, and having 
found access by a private channel to George I., he so far 
interested him in the project, that the king granted a 
charter for the new foundation, and commanded Sir Robert 
Walpole to introduce and conduct through the House of 
Commons an address for the endowment of the college 
with £20,000. After six weeks' struggle against " an 
earnest opposition, from different interests and motives,' "f 
the address was "carried by an extraordinary majority, 
none having the confidence to speak against it, and but two 
giving their negatives in a low voice, as if ashamed of it." 
But now, when it might have seemed that " all difficul- 
ties were over," they were little more than beginning, 
"much opposition being raised, and that by very great 
men, to the design." Sir Robert TValpole was averse to 
the whole measure ; and a year and a half after the grant 
of the charter, it was "with much difficulty,, and the pe- 
culiar blessing of God, that it was resolved to go on with 
the grant, in spite of the strong opposition in the cabinet 
council." But Berkeley's resolution was equal to every 
obstacle ; though he complains of having " to do with very 
busy people at a very busy time," he was, by May 1727. 
" very near concluding the crown-grant to the college, 
having got over all difficulties and obstructions, which were 
not a few." At this moment, and before the broad seal 
was attached to the grant, the king died ;t and he had all 
to begin again. 

With untired energy he resumed his labors, and "con- 
trary to the expectations of his friends," so well succeeded, 
that by September, 1728, he was able to set sail with a 
new-married wife for the land of his choice. He went first 
to Rhode Island, where he intended to lay in some neces- 
sary stock for the improvement of his proposed college 
farms in the Bermudas. Here he awaited the payment of 

* Life of Bishop Berkeley, pp. 17, 18. 

f Letters of Bishop Berkeley. % June 1727. 



BERKELEY IN RHODE ISLAND. 121 

the 20,000Z. endowment of his college, But a secret influ- 
ence at home was thwarting his efforts. His friends in 
vain importuned the minister on his behalf, and equally 
fruitless were his own earnest representations. The pro- 
mised grant was diverted to other objects. With the vigor 
of a healthy mind, he was laboring in his sacred calling 
amongst the inhabitants of Rhode Island, making provision 
for his future college, and serving God with thankfulness 
for the blessings he possessed. " I live here," he says, 
" upon land that I have purchased, and in a farm-house 
that I have built in this island ; it is fit for cows and sheep, 
and may be of good use in supplying our college at Ber- 
muda. Amongst my delays and disappointments, I thank 
God I have two domestic comforts, my wife and my little 
son; he is a great joy to us : we are such fools as to think 
him the most perfect thing in its kind that we ever saw." 
For three years he patiently awaited the means of accom- 
plishing his purpose ; until Bishop Gibson extracted from 
Sir Robert Walpole a reply, which brought him home. "If," 
said he, " you put this question to me as a minister, I must 
assure you that the money shall most undoubtedly be paid 
as soon as suits the public convenience ; but if you ask me 
as a friend, whether Dr. Berkeley should continue in Ame- 
rica, expecting the payment of 20.00 01., I advise him by 
all means to return home to Europe, and to give up his 
present expectations."^ 

-Thus was this noble project, and the labor of seven 
years of such a life, absolutely thwarted. One consequence 
alone remained. The library intended for his college was 
left by Berkeley at Rhode Island, and sowed in after- years 
the seed of truth amongst that people. He himself returned 
to England ; and until his death, in 1753, repeatedly endea- 
vored to arouse his country to the due discharge of its duty 
to the western colonies. 

Other great men repeated his warnings. Bishops But- 
ler,! Sherlock, and Gibson, enforced in turn our clear 
obligations in this matter. Thus we find, in 1738, the 
Bishop of London " laboring much, but in vain, with the 

* Chandler's Life of Johnson, pp 53, 54. 
t See Apthorpe's Review of Mayhew's Remarks, p. 55. 
6 



122 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

court and the ministry, and endeavoring to induce the 
archbishop, who had credit with both, to join him in try- 
ing what could be done to get a bishop sent into the plan- 
tations;"^ and in the same year there was some hope that 
the bishop would be " appointed archbishop of the New 
World, the continent of America, and the adjacent islands, 
and invested with authority and a fullness of power to send 
bishops among them." 

But the fears and the subtleties of worldly-wise politi- 
cians defeated all these promising appearances. Sir Robert 
Walpole's government was dead to all appeals founded 
upon moral and religious principles. The minister con- 
sented willingly to no proposal which could increase the 
strength of the Church at home ; and whilst the sectarian 
opponents of the measure had put forward their objections 
in terms which could not be mistaken, there was no counter 
power to weigh against the irreligious bias of the adminis- 
tration. The nation knew too little of Church principles 
to feel much interest hi the subject ; while the Church 
herself languished beneath the benumbing influence of 
Hoadley, and others of his school. Still, the episcopalians 
in America continued their most reasonable prayer. From 
all parts of the continent memorials were still sent home, 
though the greatest earnestness upon the subject was mani- 
fested in the northern colonies, where, as we have seen, 
there was, from many causes, most of the life and vigor of 
religion. 

One of these addresses touched on grounds which might 
have moved even Sir Robert Walpole. The bishops, who 
had been deprived of their temporalities for refusing to take 
the oath of allegiance to William III., did not thereby lose 
their spiritual character. They had still, therefore, as of 
old, the power of conferring holy orders, and of consecrat- 
ing other bishops by the laying on of hands, although their 
doing so was plainly "irregular and schismatical."t This 
step unhappily they took, at the imminent risk of entailing 
a fearful schism on the English Church. Having founded 
a counter episcopate at home, they could feel little scruple 

* Fulham mss. f Perceval's Apology, p. 244. 



NON-JURING BISHOPS. 123 

in granting to America that boon which England had so 
long and so unwarrantably withheld from her. It was 
therefore natural that some of the American clergy should 
look to them for succor, and that they should lend a favor- 
able ear to their requests. Accordingly, Dr. Welton, and 
Mr. Talbot, the oldest missionary of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, solicited and received consecra- 
tion from the non-juring bishops : Dr. Welton was conse- 
crated by Dr. Ralph Taylor in 1722, Mr. Talbot shortly 
afterwards by Drs. Taylor and Welton.^ Political disquali- 
fications made them unable to perform publicly any epis- 
copal acts ; but there is reason to believe that they privately 
administered the rite of confirmation, and, in some cases at 
least, ordained clergy. One such instance, traditionally 
recorded,! shows in an interesting manner what might 
have been done by resident bishops towards occupying the 
land with a native clergy, and so healing the divisions of 
the West. 

A Congregationalist teacher in New-England, shortly 
before this time, began to doubt the lawfulness of his ap- 
pointment to the ministry. His doubts and fears were 
often hinted, and became well known amongst his people. 
About the time of Dr. Welton' s visit he left home for a few 
weeks, giving no intimation of the object or direction of his 
journey. On his return he resumed his pastoral charge, 
and now declared himself entirely contented with his min- 
isterial commission. Whence this contentment sprang he 
never expressly stated ; but there were reasons for the uni- 
versal belief that he had received at Dr. Welton' s hands 
the gift of ordination. 

These Episcopal acts were performed with the utmost 
secrecy ; but they were soon whispered abroad, and excited 
observation. Accounts of them were transmitted to head- 
quarters ; and good men, who distrusted non-juring loyalty, 
hoped to extort from the fears of the government what 
they could not obtain from higher motives. " We shall be 
very unhappy," they wrote home,! " if any measures are 

* Perceval's Apology, p. 246. f Hawk's Maryland, p. 185. 

% Fulham mss. 



124 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

taken to propagate disaffection among us. Now, though 
none of the clergy here have ever expressed the least dis- 
affection to King George's person or government, but al- 
ways the contrary, yet it is certain that the non-jurors have 
sent over two bishops into America, and one of them has 
travelled through the country upon a design to promote that 
cause. I had accidentally a little acquaintance with him ; 
and though I had considered the matter too well to be 
wrought upon by them, yet many will be in great danger 
of being led aside ; for their powers of insinuation are very 
considerable. Your lordship sees from hence how misera- 
ble the case of this country is, for want of bishops to preserve 
the flock of Christ from wandering out of one schism into 
another, and withal into disaffection to the king." 

To the same effect speaks an address of the body of the 
clergy maintained by the Gospel-Propagation Society, set- 
ting forth " the many ill consequences that may follow 
from Dr. Welton's coming over, who is reported to have 
privately received the Episcopal character in England, by 
corrupting the affections of the people of that country to 
our most excellent constitution and the person of his most 
sacred majesty," and representing also " the great use and 
benefit of an orthodox and legal bishop residing among 
them."* 

But not even political danger could extort this boon. 
These appeals only led to Dr. Welton's recall on his alle- 
giance,! and to the dismissal of the venerable Talbot from 
his former ofhee. 

Still the question was not left to sleep ; and even in 
the highest places of the Church at home a more lively 
zeal for its accomplishment was soon evinced. About the 
year 1764 a pamphlet was published on the subject in 
New-England, by the Rev. E. Apthorpe, a missionary at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, which called forth an acrimo- 
nious rejoinder from a Congregational minister at Boston, 
of the name of Mayhew. In this, amongst other charges 
against the society in whose employment Apthorpe was. 

* S. P. G. mss. 

f He returned to Europe, and died in 1726. 



ARCHBISHOP SECKER. 125 

he specially attacked its aim and object in desiring Ame- 
rican bishops. 

This pamphlet was answered by no less a man than 
Archbishop Seeker. His attention had long since been 
drawn to the question;* and, in a letter to Horace Wal- 
pole, written in January 1750, and published, by his order, 
after his decease, he had entered fully into the whole case. 
This letter was an answer to objections against the institu- 
tion of an American Episcopate, urged, in a letter to Dr. 
Sherlock, bishop of London, by Robert Lord Walpole, 
brother of the late prime minister. Lord Walpole shared 
his brother's apprehension of increasing the power of the 
Church, and into this fear all his objections resolve them- 
selves. These the archbishop fully met, and showed, as 
he does again in his reply to Dr. Mayhew's angry charges, 
how clearly due was such an institution to our Episcopa- 
lian brethren. " The Church of England," he maintained, 
"is in its constitution Episcopal. It is in some of the plan- 
tations confessedly the established Church ; in the rest are 

many congregations adhering to it All members of 

every Church are, according to the principles of liberty, 
entitled to every part of what they conceive to be the 
benefits of it entire and complete, so far as consists with 
the welfare of civil government. Yet the members of our 
Church in America do not thus enjoy its benefits, having 
no Protestant bishop within three thousand miles of them 
— a case which never had its parallel before in the Chris- 
tian world. Therefore it is desired that two or more 
bishops may be appointed for them .... to have no concern 
in the least with any persons who do not profess themselves 
to be of the Church of England ; but to ordain ministers 
for such as do, to confirm their children, when brought to 
them at a fit age for that purpose, and take oversight of 
the Episcopal clergy. . . . Neither is it, nor ever was, in- 

* In 1745 he writes from London to Dr. Johnson: "Everything 
looks very discouraging here; ecclesiastical, civil, domestic, and 
foreign. God avert from us the judgments we have deserved. 

We have been greatly blameable, amongst many other things, 

towards you, particularly in giving you no 'bishops. Life of Dr. 
Johnson, p. 15. 



126 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tended to fix one in New-England ; but Episcopal colonies 
have always been proposed."* 

Such a plea seemed scarcely to admit of answer from 
the zealous advocates of religious toleration ; but Dr. 
Mayhew still found grounds for opposition, and for the 
part he had taken in this matter the archbishop was ma- 
ligned for years, as an overbearing violator of the rights 
of conscience. 

Though no immediate steps were taken in the matter, 
the archbishop did not despair of its accomplishment. 
" Lord Halifax," he says (in 1671), " is very earnest for 
bishops in America. I hope we may have a chance to 
succeed in that great point, when it shall please God to 
bless us with a peace."! Nor was the cause let to drop 
amongst the northern colonists. Dr. Chandler of New 
Jersey, soon came forward as its advocate, and he ex- 
pressed the views of all the northern clergy. Those of 
New- York, New Jeresy, and Connecticut, formed them- 
selves into a union, under the title of " The Voluntary Con- 
vention," with a view to obtaining their desire. In May, 
1771, the Connecticut clergy addressed another earnest 
appeal upon the subject to the Bishop of London. " View- 
ing," they began, " the distressed and truly pitiable state 
of the Church of England in America, being destitute of 
resident bishops, we beg leave to renew our addresses hi 
behalf of it. "We apprehend it a matter of great impor- 
tance, considered in every view, that the Church should 

be supported in America But this Church cannot 

be supported long hi such a country as this, where it has 
so many and potent enemies thirsting after universal domin- 
ion, and so many difficulties to surmount, without an episco- 
pate, which in any country is essential at least to the well- 
being of the Church. Must it not, then, be surprising and 
really unaccountable that this Church should be denied 
the episcopate she asks, which is so necessary to her well- 
being, and so harmless, that her bitterest enemies acknow T - 
ledge it can injure none ? While Roman Catholics in one 

* Answer to Dr. Mayhew's Observations, &c 3 — Archbishop Seek- 
er's Works, vol. ix. p. 324. 

f Letter of Abp. Seeker, — Dr Johnson's Life, p. 182. 



CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT. 127 

of his Majesty's colonies are allowed a bishop, and the 
Moravians are indulged the same favor in another ; nay, 
and every blazing enthusiast throughout the British em- 
pire is tolerated in the full enjoyment of every peculiarity 
of his sect ; what have the sons of the Church in America 
done, that they are treated with such neglect, and are 
overlooked by government ? Must not such a disregard 
of the Church here be a great discouragement to her sons ? 
Will it not prevent the growth of the Church, and there- 
by operate to the disadvantage of religion and loyalty ? . 
. . We believe episcopacy to be of divine origin ; and 
judge an American episcopate to be essential to the well- 
being of religion here."^ 

The efforts of the clergy of Connecticut were not con- 
fined to sending such addresses to the powers at home. 
Their first endeavor was to secure the concurrent voice of 
episcopal America ; and for this end they sent deputiest 
throughout the other states. Had such vigorous steps been 
taken earlier, there can be little doubt what would have 
been their issue. They would have called forth from all 
parts of that continent one general voice, which could not 
have been slighted here. But that season was gone by ; 
there was now in many districts a clear indisposition to join 
in the attempt. Of this the convention of Connecticut 
avowed themselves " sadly sensible ; some of the principal 
colonies are not desirous of bishops ; and there are some 
persons of loose principles, — nay, some even of the clergy 
of those colonies where the Church is established, — who, in- 
sensible of their miserable condition, are rather averse to 
them. But this is so far from being a reason against it, that 
it is the strongest reason for sending them bishops ; because 
they never having had any ecclesiastical government or or- 
der (which ought indeed to have obtained above seventy 
years ago), the cause of religion, for want of it, is sunk and 
sinking to the lowest ebb ; while some of the clergy, as we 

* Fulham mss. 

f The Rev. Dr. Cooper, president of King's College, New- York, 
and the Rev. Mr. M'Kean, missionaiy at Amboy, INew Jersey, were 
sent to the southern part of the continent. Seabury jiss., — apud 
Dr. Hawks' Virginia, p. 126. 



128 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

are credibly informed (but are grieved to say it), do much 
neglect their duty ; and some of them on the continent, 
and especially in the islands, are some of the worst of 
men : and we fear there are but too many that consider 
their sacred office in no other light than as a trade or 
means of getting a livelihood ; and many of the laity, of 
course, consider it only as a mere craft ; and deplorable ig- 
norance, infidelity, and vice greatly obtain ; so that unless 
ecclesiastical government can so far take place as that the 
clergy may be obliged to do their duty, the very appearance 
of the Church will in time be lost, and all kinds of sectaries 
will scon prevail, who are indefatigable in making their 
best advantage of such a sad condition of things. It is 
therefore, we humbly conceive, not only highly reasonable, 
but absolutely necessary, that bishops be sent, at least to 
some of these colonies (for we do not expect one here in 
New-England) ; and we are not willing to despair but that 
earnest and persevering endeavours may yet bring it to pass. 
We humbly beg your lordship's candor with regard to the 
warmth our consciences oblige us to express on this melan- 
choly occasion."^ 

But these were not now the only hindrances. In many 
respects the time was wholly unpropitious for the effort. 
Discord had been long at work between the mother coun- 
try and the colonies, and men's minds had become embit- 
tered against everything of English aspect. They associ- 
ated the name of bishops with the institutions of the 
mother country, and were unwilling to receive them from 
her, even whilst they admitted and believed that their 
office was essential to the perfection of the Church. Other 
causes, too, were at work. There were some, no doubt, 
desirous of maintaining the union between England and 
America, who feared, at that moment of fierce and unna- 
tural suspicion, to introduce any new cause of difference, 
or to alienate still further the sectarian population by the 
name of bishops. When, therefore, the Yirginian clergy, 
who might be naturally thought most ready to unite hi 

* Letter from Convention of Connecticut to the Lord Bishop of 
London, Oct., 1766, — Fulham mss. 



SIGXS OF THE TIMES. 129 

this appeal, were called together by their commissary, in 
April 1771, for its consideration, so few appeared in coun- 
cil that the question was postponed. A second summons 
brought no more than twelve, a majority of whom, after 
one opposite decision, agreed to an appeal to the king in favor 
of an American episcopate. But against this vote, two at 
first, and ultimately four, out of the twelve, protested pub- 
licly ; and such was the feeling of the laity, that these four 
received the unanimous thanks of the lower branch of the 
Virginian house of legislature, for "their wise and well- 
timed opposition to the pernicious project for introducing 
an American bishop." Yet of this very body the great 
majority would have termed themselves episcopalians ; 
and the reasons given for the protest refer only to present 
expediency, whilst it professes to revere episcopacy. Three 
out of the four reasons on which it was grounded were, 
(1) the disturbances occasioned by the stamp-act ; (2) a 
recent rebellion in North Carolina ; and (3) the general 
clamor of the moment against introducing bishop's ; whilst 
the fourth, in fact, affected only the intended form of appli- 
cation, which, it was contended, should be first addressed 
to the Bishop of London for advice, before it besought the 
throne for the episcopate. 

Under these reasons the true cause of this opposition 
may be read. There were already signs abroad of the ap- 
proaching hurricane : the whole atmosphere, political and 
moral, was heated and disturbed. Old men looked around 
them with wonder and fear at the great change in opinions 
as to Church and State, which they saw passing upon all. 
They could " remember wiien, excepting a few inoffensive 
Quakers, there was not in the whole colony a single con- 
gregation of dissenters of any denomination,"* and when 
loyalty and love for their Church was the very character- 
istic of the " Virginian dominion :" but now all was 
changed. A popular candidate applied for votes upon the 
profession of "low churchmanship and whiggery/'t It 
were as easy " to count the gnats that buzz about in a sum- 

* Boucher's American Revolution : a sermon preached at St. Gary's, 
Caroline county, Virginia, in 1771, p. 97. 
t Boucher's Sermon, p. 98. 
6* 



130 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

mer's evening, as the numbers of sectarian and itinerant 
priests ; and in particular of those swarms of separatists, 
who had sprung up under the name of Anabaptists and 
New Lights within the last seven years."* 

"With this increase of schismatics the Church was 
taunted as a proof of her remissness. It was in vain that 
she replied, that " itinerant preachers, with whom the 
colony was overrun, made their proselytes in parishes left 
vacant through the want of bishops to ordain successors :"t 
the temper of the time was against all authority in Church 
or State. The party papers of the day took np the contest. 
The discussion on the American Episcopate was conducted 
by the same organs and in the same temper as that on the 
recent stamp-act. Continued misrepresentation stirred up 
the feelings of the people into angry opposition to the plan. 
"It is our singular fate," boldly declared a preacher at the 
time, in the face of some of the warmest opposers of epis- 
copacy, " to have lived to see a most extraordinary event 
in Church history : professed churchmen fighting the bat- 
tles of dissenters, and our worst enemies now literally those 
of our own household." " Till now, the opposition to an 
American episcopate has been confined chiefly to the dema- 
gogues and Independents of the New-England provinces ; 
but it is now espoused with warmth by the people of Vir- 
ginia."! 

In such a state of things sober-minded men, who loved 
their country, looked onward with unfeigned alarm." 
""What evils," § declared one of them almost prophetically, 
in 1769, " this prevalence of sectarianism, so sudden, so 
extraordinary, and so general,, may portend to the state, I 
care not to think. Enthusiasts conceive it to be the com- 
mencement of a millennium : but I recollect with horror 
that such were the ' signs of the times' previous to the great 
rebellion in the last century." 

In this unhappy temper of the country, unanimity of 
effort to secure the episcopate was manifestly hopeless, 
Some of the southern clergy boldly rebuked their more 

* Boucher's Sermon, p. 100. t lb. 

% lb. pp. 94, 103. §Ib.p. 79. 



COMMENCEIVIENT OF THE STORM. 131 

time-serving brethren ; and an " appeal" was published 
''from the clergy of New- York and New Jersey to the 
episcopalians in Virginia," full of arguments which, on 
their common principles, admitted of no answer. But 
events were hastening on to a far different end. The storm 
of revolution was already breaking on the land ; and till its 
fury had swept past, the desire of every pious churchman 
must be unattainable. 



CHAPTER Y. 

FROM 17^5 TO 1*783-4. 

Revolutionary war — Loyalty of the Northern clergy — Persecution — 
Virginian clergy generally loyal — Treated with violence — Thomas 
Jefferson — Zeal of the Anabaptists — Their hatred to the Church — 
Repeal of all former acts in its favor — Incomes of the clergy 
stopped — They are stripped even of the glebes and churches — 
Conduct of the Methodists — John Wesley persuaded to consecrate 
Dr. Coke — Depressed state of the Church at the end of the war — 
Religion at a low ebb — The revolutionary war a consequence of 
the Church not having be-3n planted in America. 

The first blood shed in the war of American independence 
was at Lexington, in the year 1775. The northern colo- 
nies, which had been all along the great fomenters of dis- 
turbance, now, true to the spirit of their ancestors, led the 
way in revolt. Amidst the general defection, one class of 
men alone continued loyal. "Whilst hypocrisy found hi Puri- 
tanism the forms it needed,^ no one minister of the Epis- 
copalian Church north of Pennsylvania joined the side of 
the insurgents ; and, as if to make the lesson planter to 
the mother country, the king's troops were fired upon for 
the first time from a meeting-house in Massachusetts Bay.f 
The great mass of the clergy here were missionaries of the 
venerable society, and depended for their incomes on the 
salaries they drew from it. But deeper motives lay at 
the root of their firm loyalty. They'had learned to honor 
their king in the same holy oracles which bid them fear 
their God ; and though there may be nothing in the con- 
stitution of the Church which makes it incompatible with 
republican institutions, yet those who had sworn allegiance 
to the crown of England knew not how to break those 
oaths without the crime of perjury. 

* See p. 135. f Boucher's American Revolution. 



PERSECUTION, 133 

Their constancy was not a little tried ; and it endured 
the trial. Mr. Beach, the venerable pastor of Newtown, 
answered an inj unction to cease praying for the king, by 
the declaration, "that he would do his duty, preach and 
pray for the king, till they cut out his tongue."^ One of 
the insurgent generals acquainted the Rev. Mr. Inglis that, 
" General Washington would be at church, and would be 
glad if the prayers for the king and royal family were 
omitted, or the word ' king ' exchanged for ' common- 
wealth.' ' Mr. Inglis paid no attention to the message, 
and declared soon after to Washington hi person " that it 
was in his power to close their churches, but by no means 
in his power to make the clergy depart from their duty." 
To try his determination, one hundred and fifty armed 
men marched into the church in which he was officiating ; 
but he fearlessly continued the appointed service. The 
officers sent to him for the keys of the church, that they 
might open it to the sectarian chaplains. He ak once re- 
fused ; took ail the keys from the inferior servants of the 
church, and stood his ground so firmly, that the attempt 
was shortly after dropped. 

But firmness would not always save the clergy from 
violence and wrong. Many received personal ill-treat- 
ment ; and in 1777, Trinity Church, New- York was burned 
by incendiaries ; and Mr. Avery barbarously murdered, be- 
couse he refused to pray for congress. From the first out- 
break of the revolution this spirit had been stirring ; the 
builders of St. John's Church, Elizabeth Town, New Jer- 
sey, had, in 1774, to watch by night with swords in their 
hands over the rising walls of their new temple. f As the 
war proceeded, outrages became more general, until there 
was not in many of the northern provinces one church re- 
maining open. In Pennsylvania one only was left, under 
the mmistry of Mr. White, who, with Dr. Provoost, were 
the first Americans afterwards consecrated bishops by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 

These passionate outbreaks were not confined to the 

* Gadsden's Preliminary to the Life of Dehon, p. 37. 
t Historical Notices of St. John's Church, p. 17, by John Rudd, 
D.D. 



134 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

northern provinces, in which the clergy were, for the most 
part, missionaries of the Gospel-Propagation Society, and 
might for that reason be more closely identified with the 
English people. In Maryland and Virginia, where the 
clergy, supported by endowments, were entirely identified 
with colonial interests, they were similarly treated. The 
Church was an object of suspicion and dislike to the insur- 
gents. They felt that her temper was against them, even 
when her sons, as in the case of General Washington, were 
found amongst their leaders. In these provinces, as well as 
in the north, the great bulk of the clergy remained loyal. 
Some of them continued to officiate and employ the English 
ritual, praying duly for the king, in spite of threats and vio- 
lence, which were carried to the greatest lengths. Thus, 
for instance, one clergyman, who had offended the revolu- 
tionary party through his consistent loyalty, was enticed 
from home at night by a feigned message, which called for 
his attendance on a sick parishioner. He fell into the snare, 
was carried to the w T oods, and there tied up, and after being 
mercilessly flogged, left, till he was found and rescued in 
the morning.^ Yet even here consistent firmness some- 
times triumphed. One Virginian clergyman refused, when 
violence was at its greatest height, to close his church or 
change his service. He went weekly to his duty, after 
taking a last leave of all his family, and resolutely minis- 
tered as he had done of old. Such determination met with 
its reward : no one dared to interrupt him, and his house 
grew into a safe asylum for his persecuted brethren. 

But, with some such instances of firmness, the clergy, 
on the whole, did not maintain the loyal tone which had 
so strongly marked the northern provinces. They were 
more under the control of local influence, and they were 
beset by many snares. No scruples withheld their oppo- 
nents. If the rebellious spirit of the people flagged, the 
holiest things were craftily profaned in order to excite their 
passions. The deist Jefferson, looking back upon his life, 
records with self-complacent pleasure, that, thinking " the 
appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer would 

* Ms. letter quoted by Dr. Hawks, Epis. Ch. of Virg. 



ANABAPTISTS. 135 

be most likely to call up and alarm attention, lie rummaged 
over the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans, 
and cooked up a resolution for appointing a day of fasting, 
humiliation and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from 
us the evils of a civil war."* Such hypocrisy was always 
at command. And in order to entrap the clergy, through- 
out the early stages of the war days of special fasting and 
prayer were publicly enjoined in terms of studied ambi- 
guity, which did not express direct opprobation of the out- 
break, but had a general reference to the disturbance of 
the times. Such orders could not reach the northern clergy ; 
but here the Church was established, and the clergy were 
forced suddenly to choose whether they would check such 
wishes of apparent piety, or indirectly approve of the rebel- 
lion. As there was no bishop who could act as a common 
centre for the various members of the Church, each one 
took singly his own line ; and the general tone being lower 
here than in the north, one-third of all the clergy joined 
the revolution, and more than one laid down his pastor's 
staff and censer to take up the musket and the sword. 
Two of the Virginian clergy had risen to the rank of briga- 
dier-generals at the close of the war. 

But compromise never saved the Church, and it did not 
shield it hi Virginia. Its fiercest enemies, the Anabaptists 
saw at once the favorable moment, and resolved to seize it 
In their secret councils they had already doomed the pro- 
vincial establishment, t and they set themselves at once to 
work out their design. Their first step was to address the 
convention with a declaration of their entire concurrence in 
the war, and to offer the assistance of their pastors in en- 
listing the youth of their own denomination. This done, 
they petitioned for freedom of worship, and for exemption 
from payments to any but their own religious teachers. $ 
Their zeal was met by a permission to officiate in the army, 
in common with the established clergy, and by promises of 
future favor. Encouraged by these beginnings, they poured 
in on the legislature a multitude of similar petitions. In 

* Jefferson's Memoirs, p. 6. 

f Journals of Convention, August 1775, quoted by Dr. Hawks. 

\ Semple's History of Virginia Baptists, pp. 25-27. 



136 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

their prayer, says the Anabaptist historian with wonderful 
simplicity, "the Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Deists, 
and all the covetous," united. A long struggle followed in 
the legislative body, which gave rise to " the severest con- 
tests," says Mr. Jefferson, the chief opponent of the Church, 
" in which I have ever been engaged."^ It resulted in an 
act repealing all former laws in favor of the Church ; ex- 
empting dissenters from further contributions to its funds ; 
only securing to the clergy existing arrears of salaries, with 
the glebes, churches, plate, and books, which they already 
possessed. In the present strife of parties, this act stopped 
at once the incomes of the great body of the clergy, and 
absolutely drove them from the country. Churches were 
now everywhere abandoned, flocks wholly broken up, and 
the sacraments administered only from time to time by a 
few zealous pastors, who travelled through the country for 
the purpose. 

Yet even this did not satisfy the hatred of the Anabap- 
tist faction. The title to the glebes was still in the Church ; 
and till this was wrested from her, their spirit could not 
rest. Accordingly, as soon as the revolutionary war was 
over, they returned to the assault. The incorporation of 
religious bodies was rendered legal by the colonial legisla- 
ture, and the Church availed itself of this permission. The 
first act of the dissenters was to repeal this measure, and 
dissolve the voluntary incorporation. This done, they 
rssted not until, in 1 803, they procured the confiscation 
and sale of all the glebes and churches. Even the com- 
munion-plate was sold ; and the offensive desecration of 
things long set apart to holy uses, which this violence oc- 
casioned, gratified their deep hatred to the Church. 

Other evils pressed at the conclusion of the revolutionary 
war on her wounded and dismembered body. In Virginia, 
as at home, the Methodist connexion had been founded in 
communion with her. Some of the most pious of the clergy 
had lent their aid to nurture its beginnings. Its teachers 
at this time intruded themselves on no strictly ministerial 
office ; they exhorted all their flocks to cleave to the Church ; 

* Jefferson's Memoirs, p. 33. 



THE METHODISTS. 137 

they with them received the holy eucharist from her ap- 
pointed pastors ; and only aimed at quickening and increas- 
ing the religious zeal of her members. Discipline was first 
openly neglected during the spiritual famine of the revolu- 
tionary war. Under its pressure some of the Methodist 
exhorters assumed a right to discharge the functions of or- 
dained men. This, however, was completely checked by 
the authority of Mr. Asbury, a leader of their body, who 
with indefatigable labor succeeded in obtaining a public 
disavowal of the unwarrantable practice. 

But after the revolution the blow fell from another quar- 
ter. John Wesley, then, as his brother Charles and his 
biographer suggest, enfeebled by the weight of fourscore 
years and two, was persuaded, by some of those into 
whose hauds he was about to drop the reins which in 
his vigor none had ever shared with him, to attempt to 
give that which he had never received — the power of ordi- 
nation. He found in Dr. Coke one who, with much zeal 
and piety, was predisposed by strong personal vanity to 
receive gladly the pretended consecration, and who even 
pressed strongly on Wesley his " earnest wish "* to obtain 
it. The unhappy step was therefore taken at Bristol in 
1784 ; and " in spite of a million declarations to the con- 
trary, the ordination of Methodist parsons on the Presby- 
terian plan"f commenced by Wesley. To the " uninfected 
itinerants," says Dr. Whitehead, himself one of the connec- 
tion, it was " amazing and confounding." Even Charles 
Wesley, who was at Bristol with him, was not in his bro- 
ther's secret ; But in an evil hour John Wesley was " sur- 
prised into this rash action ;"$ and with his commission, and 
the title of superintendent — soon changed by imperceptible 
degrees for that of bishop — Dr. Coke went out to America 
to involve the Methodist connection there in open schism. 

Mr. Asbury was joined in this commission with the 
doctor. When it was first opened to him, he " expressed 
strong doubts about it ;"§ but the authority of Mr. Wes- 

* Whitehead's Life of Wesley, vol. ii. p. 419. 
f lb. vol. ii p. 416. 

X Charles Wesley's Letter to Dr. Chandler. 
§ Coke's Journal. 



138 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ley's name subdued him, and at length he joined the scheme ; 
and the American Methodists were severed from the 
Church. 

The reasons given by John Wesley for this step bear 
no marks of his vigorous understanding. At home he still 
declares, he would not suffer it ; but where there were " no 
bishops with legal jurisdiction, his scruples were at an 
end." He seemed to himself to " violate no order, and in- 
vade no man's right, by appointing and sending laborers 
into the harvest." Every Churchman sees at once the 
vanity of such excuses. In admitting the power of bishops 
he sealed his own condemnation. For if such an order did 
indeed exist in the Church at all, possessed of powers and 
functions specially committed to it by the Lord, Wesley 
could not at his own desire arm himself with its peculiar 
gifts. Yet, whilst we see the weakness of his reasoning, it 
is most instructive to mark on what he grounded the law- 
fulness of this usurpation. Here as elsewhere, it is to 
the want of bishops that the injury may be distinctly 
traced. 

The peace, which was proclaimed in April 1783, found 
the Church wasted and almost destroyed. The ministra- 
tions of the northern clergy had been suspended by their 
conscientious loyalty ; and with the recognition of Ameri- 
can independence the connection of the missionaries of the 
venerable society with the land in which they had labored 
hitherto was abruptly ended. In the south, its condition 
was not greatly better. Virginia had entered on the war 
with one hundred and sixty-four churches and chapels, and 
ninety-one clergymen spread through her sixty-one counties. 
At the close of the contest, a large number of her churches 
were destroyed ; ninety-five parishes were extinct or for- 
saken ; of the remaining seventy-two, thirty-four were with- 
out ministerial services ; while of her ninety -one clergy- 
men, only twenty-eight remained. "^ To this day, the 
mournful monuments of that destruction sadden the Church- 
man's heart throughout the " ancient dominion." As he 
" gazes upon the roofless walls, or leans upon the little 

* Dr. Hawks' Virginia, p. 154. 154. 



EFFECTS OF THE WAS. 139 

remnants of railing which once surrounded a now deserted 
chancel ; as he looks out through the openings of a broken 
wall, upon the hillocks under which the dead of former 
years are sleeping, with no sound to disturb his melancholy 
musings save the whispers of the wind through leaves of 
the forest around him, he may be pardoned should he drop 
a tear over the desolated house of God."^ At the time, the 
prospect was indeed depressing. The flocks were scatter- 
ed and divided ; the pastors few, poor, and suspected ; their 
enemies dominant and fierce. Nothing but that indes- 
tructible vitality with which God has endowed His Church 
could have kept it alive in that day of rebuke and blas- 
phemy. Nor was it her communion only which had suf- 
fered ; a blighting influence pervaded all the moral atmos- 
phere. Religion, in its most general form, was every where 
depressed. If the dissenters seemed to triumph, it was 
mainly because Jefferson — the friend of the infamous Tom 
Paine, and himself supposed to be a settled unbeliever — 
used them as his most convenient weapon of assault upon 
the Church. He and others like himself now held the reins 
of power, and in a great degree directed public opinion. 
They hated the Church alike for her loyalty and for her 
faith. Whilst she had learned to intercede for " kings 
and all that are in authority," they were teaching their 
young republicans to " besiege the throne of Heaven with 
eternal prayers to extirpate from creation this class of hu- 
man- lions, tigers, and mammoths, called kings."! And 
her faith was as hateful to them as her loyalty. They es- 
teemed it a " form of tyranny over the mind of man, which 
had its birth and growth in the blood of hundreds and thou- 
sands of martyrs, against which they had sworn eternal 
hostility. "$ Her " clergy lived by the schisms they could 
create." || Her saints were, like " Calvin or Athanasius, 
fanatics and impious dogmatists. ' ' § The religious faith they 
would themselves inculcate maybe learned from Jefferson's 

* Hawks' Virginia, p. 155. 

t Jefferson's Memoirs, vol ii. p. 22 i. 

\ Ibid. vol. iii. p. 499, and vol. iv. p. 368, 

| Ibid. vol. iii. p. 475. 

§ Jefferson's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 358 



140 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

directions to a youth whose mind he wished to form. " Fix 
reason," are his words, " firmly in her seat, and call to her 
tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question even the be- 
ing of a God. ... Do not be frightened from this inquiry 
by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that 
there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the, 
comfort and pleasantness you will feel in its exercise, and 
the love of others which it will procure you."^ So large 
were his views, that he " threw the mantle of public protec- 
tion alike over the Jew and Gentile, the Christian and Ma- 
hommedan, Hindoo and infidel of every denomination. : 'f 
As was natural in such a state of things, infidelity was 
spreading all around, girdled every where by a fierce and 
unreasoning fanaticism. " From a pious Presbyterian," 
says a writer of the day,t " I learn that religion is at a low 
ebb among them. The Baptists, I suppose are equally de- 
clining ; I seldom hear anything about them. The Me- 
thodists are splitting and falling to pieces." " The war," 
says the Anabaptist chronicler of the state of his sect, 
" though very propitious to their liberty, had an opposite 
effect upon the life of religion among them. They suffered 
a very wintry season The declension was gene- 
ral Iniquity greatly abounded. "|| 

Such was the state of things at the end of the revolu- 
tionary war. 

It is impossible to close the scene without reflecting 
how different it might have been, if the mother country 
had long before faithfully established the strong band of a 
true community of faith between herself and her colonies. 
Those whose minds the Church, weak as she was, had 
leavened, were by her healing influence kept loyal in the 
day of trial. What might not have been the consequence, 
if, instead of spreading division freely in that land, and 
keeping her maimed and impotent, we had, with a true 
faith in God, planted her amongst our western children in 

* Jefferson's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 217. 
f Jefferson' Works, vol. i. p. 39. 
j Life of Rev. Devereaux Jarratt, p. 180. 

|| Semple's Hist. Virginia Baptists, pp. 35, 36, quoted by Dr. 
Hawks. 



COLONIAL EMPIRE. 141 

her strength and beauty ! The colonies might now, per- 
haps, have been as much an independent nation ; but they 
might have reached that state by a gradual progress to 
natural maturity; their youthful affections might never 
have been torn from us ; and England, America, and the 
world, might have been spared those bitter sufferings with 
which they have been visited in the war of independence, 
and its clear consequence, the French Revolution. But 
this the intrigues of party statesmen had prevented. In vain 
the Church at home protested ; in vain America sent, year 
by year, her supplications for the boon ; at one time their mu- 
tual suspicions ; at another, fears of strengthening the Church 
at home ; the hope, at another, of securing the support 
of schismatics in England or the colonies, — led these men 
to weave otherwise their fine-spun webs of cunning policy. 
Thus the cause of God was slighted ; all seemed to prosper 
for a while ; but the day of retribution came ; and surely 
that hour of mortal struggle, closed by the sudden loss of 
those great settlements, was intended to teach England 
that her vast colonial empire was a trust from God ; and 
that, if she would not use it for His glory, it should wither 
in her grasp. 



CHAPTER VI. 

'from 1183 to 1787. 

Depression of the Church — Parties — And Opinions — Attempted or- 
ganisation in the south — Mr. White — Conventions in Virginia and 
Philadelphia — Agreement on common principles — First move- 
ments for general union — General voluntary meeting at New-York 
— Want of episcopate — Movement amongst the eastern clergy — 
They elect Dr. Seabury bishop — He sails for England — Disap- 
pointed of consecration there — Dr. Berkeley and the Scotch 
Bishops — Dr. Seabury applies to them — Opposition — his conse- 
cration — And return — First convention at Philadelphia — Differ- 
ence of opinion — Dr. White — Proposed liturgy — Application to 
the English prelates for the apostolical succession — Their objections 
to some changes in the liturgy — These reconsidered — Drs. White . 
and Provoost embark for England — Are consecrated at Lambeth 
— Return to America, April 1787. 

It has been often seen, in the dealings of God with. His 
people, that mortality becomes the seed of life. " Except 
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; 
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." " That which 
thou so west is not quickened, except it die." And so it 
was now with the Church in America. Crushed it was, 
and almost brought to nothing ; made the very prey of its 
enemies ; abandoned, of necessity, by the fostering hand 
which from without had so long sheltered it ; weak in the 
sunken spirits of its own children ; yet even in that hour of 
darkness and depression, preparing to arise in a perfectness 
of discipline and strength which it never had known, and 
never could know, whilst, instead of being planted as a 
substantive communion, it was treated as a distant, incom- 
plete, and feeble branch of one settled in another land. It 
had within itself the principle of life ; and now that it was 
cast out into the field of the world, although suddenly and 



PARTIES IN THE CHURCH. 143 

rudely, it began to strike its roots, and put forth its tender 
"buds. 

Yet dangers of the most various character threatened 
its existence. A twofold object was before those who 
watched over it ; to provide, through the possession of the 
Episcopal succession, for the independent existence of the 
Church, and to gather up into a national communion the 
scattered congregations of the old " Church of England in 
America." It was no easy matter to secure either of 
these objects, and peculiar difficulties opposed their 
combination. There always have been, and, from the 
constitution of the human mind, there always must be, 
in the Church two extremes of opinion, towards which, 
on the one side or the other, its members will incline. 
On the one side are ranged those who are disposed to set 
a high value on external observances and forms ; on the 
other, those to whom the inner spirit seems so exclusively 
important that they are inclined to undervalue and despise 
all outward organs through which only it can act. Between 
those who belong to these extremes, mutual suspicions must 
from time to time spring up, which too often harden into 
obstinate separation. Of this there was now the greatest 
danger in America. In the eastern states the distinctive 
features of Church discipline and order were passionately 
valued ; whilst hi the south the great majority were not 
unwilling to give them up entirely ; separation between the 
two parties seemed inevitable, and the very existence of 
episcopacy was in peril with the last. 

But at this dangerous time G-od had richly endued one 
of His servants with those gifts of judgment and temper 
which were needful for the crisis ; and hence the name of 
William White will ever be recorded by the grateful re- 
membrance of the Western Church. The revolutionary 
war found him assistant minister of Christ Church and St. 
Peter's, Philadelphia. Mild in manners, meek in spirit, 
and large in toleration of the views of others, he was yet 
firm and decided in his own. Early in the war. he joined, 
from conviction, the side of the colonists, and, at its dark- 
est moment, publicly committed himself to it, by under- 
taking the chaplainship of congress. The progress of the 



144 AMERICAN CHUE.CH. 

war left him the sole minister of Christ Church and St. 
Peter's, and the election of the vestry made him their rec- 
tor. When the cause of colonial independence triumphed, 
his presence in a great measure turned aside the angry 
jealousies with which the young republic looked on the con- 
nexion to which he belonged. His consistent conduct was 
well known ; and Washington was one of those who wor- 
shipped at his church. Men would hear from him what 
they would not from another. Nor was he slow to 
employ this advantage the general good. His views 
were early turned to gathering the various flocks which were 
scattered through the states into one visible communion. 
Early in August 1782, despairing of the speedy recognition 
of American independence, and " perceiving their ministry 
gradually approaching to annihilation,"^ while England 
was as unwilling to give, as America to receive the episco- 
pate from her, he proposed a scheme for uniting the dif- 
ferent parishes in convention, and on behalf of their whole 
body, committing to its president and others the powers of 
ordination and discipline. This proposal sprung from no 
conscious undervaluing of episcopacy, but from a belief 
" that in an exigency in which a duly authorised ministry 
could not be obtained, the paramount duty of preaching the 
Gospel, and the worshipping of God on the terms of the 
Christian covenant, should go on in the best manner which 
circumstances permit."! Should more favorable prospects 
dawn upon them, and the succession be obtained, he pro- 
posed, by a provisional ordination, to supply any deficien- 
cies of ministerial character in those who had been thus 
ordained. Happily no such scheme took effect, since it 
would, in all probability, have laid the foundation of wide- 
spread and endless separation. In the very month in which 
Mr. White's pamphlet was published, the hearts of all 
were gladdened by clear symptoms of approaching peace 
between the mother country and her now independent co- 
lonies. This was no sooner established than Mr. White 
abandoned his scheme, and, daring to look on to greater 
things, set himself to gather into one the various limbs of 

* Letter to Bp. Hobart, quoted in Life of Bp. White, p. 80. 
f Note of Bp. White's to his Letter to Bp. Hobart, Dec. 1830. 



MOVEMENTS FOR UNION, 145 

the episcopal communion, that they might apply in concert 
to the mother country for the consecration of their bishops. 
He began with his own state of Pennsylvania, calling to- 
gether first his own vestries, and then (on the 31st of 
March, 1784) the other clergy of the state who happened 
to be present in the town, to deliberate upon the measures 
rendered necessary by the present posture of the episcopal 
communion. They agreed to send a circular to all the 
episcopalian congregations in Pennsylvania, inviting them to 
delegate one or more of their vestry to meet the clergy of 
the state in a general consultation on the 24th of May. On 
the day appointed they assembled, and agreed to certain 
fundamental principles as a basis for after action as a 
body. These were : — 

1. That the episcopal Church is, and ought to be, 
independent of all foreign authority, ecclesiastical or civil. 

2. That it hath, and ought to have, in common with 
other religious societies, full and exclusive powers to regu- 
late the concerns of its own communion. 

3. That the doctrines of the Gospel be maintained, as 
now professed by the Church of England, and uniformity 
of worship continued, as near as may be, to the liturgy of 
the same Church. 

4. That the succession of the ministry be agreeable to 
the usage which requireth the three orders of bishops, priests, 
and deacons ; that the rights and powers of the same re- 
spectively be ascertained, and that they be exercised accord- 
ing to reasonable laws to be duly made. 

5. That to make canons or laws, there be no other au- 
thority than that of a representative body of the clergy and 
laity conjointly. 

6. That no powers be delegated to a general ecclesias- 
tical government, except such as cannot conveniently 
be exercised by the clergy and laity in their respective 
congregations. 

Resolutions to a somewhat similar effect were passed 
in Maryland, in June 1784, and at Boston, in Massachu- 
setts, in September of the same year. By agreement upon 
these common principles, a basis for internal unity of ac- 
tion was formed within the separate provinces ; but there 
7 



146 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

was still wanting some common bond which should hold 
together the episcopal communion in the several independ- 
ent governments which together form the confederation 
of the United States. This was Mr. White's great object, 
and his character and conduct were most effectual in se- 
curing it. His early efforts were especially addressed to 
the members of the southern states, and amongst them his 
reputation for moderate views gave great weight to his ad- 
vice. He had at first to deal with most discordant mate- 
rials. One state (South Carolina) clogged a tardy consent 
to apply for the episcopate with the condition that no 
bishop should be planted in her borders ; and something of 
this jealousy was widely spread. But there was in him 
nothing to inflame it, and he was thus able to win over to 
better views those who were ready to oppose themselves. 
In the month of May 1784, a few clergymen of New- York, 
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, met at Brunswick in New 
Jersey, to renew a charitable society which had been char- 
tered, before the revolution, for the relief of the widows and 
orphans of the clergy. At this meetiag the present state 
and prospects of their Church, and the best means of unit- 
ing its scattered parts, came naturally under their discus- 
sion. To obtain this end, it was determined to procure an- 
other and more numerous gathering at New- York, by which 
some common principles might be defined. In October 
1784, the projected council met, eight of the different 
states funnelling some voluntary delegates. These agreed 
on seven leading principles of union, which they recom- 
mended to the several states, and which, with little alter- 
ation, have formed ever since the basis of their combina- 
tion. Of these the chief resolutions were the following : — 

1 . That there should be a general convention of the 
Episcopal Church in the United States of America. 

2. That the Episcopal Church in each state should 
send deputies to the convention, consisting of clergy and laity. 

3. That the said Church shall maintain the doctrines 
of the Gospel as now held by the Church of England, and 
adhere to the liturgy of the said Church as far as shall be 
consistent with the American revolution and the constitu- 
tions of the several states. 



CONDITIONS OF UNION. 147 

4. That in every state where there shall be a bishop 
duly consecrated and settled, he shall be considered as a 
member of the convention ex officio. 

5. That the clergy and laity assembled in convention 
shall deliberate in one body, but shall vote separately ; and 
the concurrence of both shall be necessary to give validity 
to every measure. 

6. That the first meeting of the convention shall be at 
Philadelphia, the Tuesday before the feast of St. Michael 
next. 

Such were the first efforts made within this Church 
for visible and outward unity. That they should be made 
at all bespoke the living energy which was dormant even 
in their most imperfect body : that they should have been 
required is a heavy charge against the mother Church. 
Never had so strange a sight been seen before in Christen- 
dom, as this necessity of various members knitting them- 
selves together into one, by such a conscious and voluntary 
act. In all other cases the unity of the common Episco- 
pate had held such limbs together ; every member, that is, 
of the Church, had visibly belonged to the community of 
which the presiding bishop was the head. That bishop 
was himself one member of an equal and common brother- 
hood, all of whom, with the same creed and in the same 
succession, were partners in one common power which each 
one separately administered ; and so each member of the 
Church under them belonged already to one great corpora- 
tion, needing to make no voluntary alliance between its 
several parts, because it was already one ; and they that 
were grafted into it were thereby grafted into unity with 
their fellows. But this common bond we had left wanting 
in our colonies ; and it was the want of this which had 
thus dismembered their communion. As soon, therefore, 
as the political connexion of the state with England was 
dissolved, some measures, for which no precedent existed, 
were forced upon them ; nor would it have been easy to 
devise a wiser course than that which they adopted, in 
their present want of bishops, who have ever been the 
organs of communication between different portions of the 
Church. 



148 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

A delegate from Connecticut had attended the conven- 
tion which framed these recommendations, but he took no 
part hi the deliberations ; for Connecticut had early moved 
in a somewhat different manner. Amongst the eastern 
clergy, as we have seen, was the most earnest piety, wedded 
to the strongest and most clearly ascertained Church prin- 
ciples. In their new circumstances, they esteemed it their 
first duty to perfect their system by securing the presence 
and rule of a bishop. In this they were confirmed by the 
avowed temper of the south, from w T hich they greatly 
feared the adoption of a spurious and nominal Episcopacy. 
They began, therefore, at once to act for themselves, and 
refused to take any share in organizing their scattered 
communion until they had a bishop at their head. As 
soon as the peace made it possible,* the clergy met hi 
voluntary convention ; and before the British troops had 
evacuated New- York, Dr. Samuel Seabury, formerly a 
missionary of the Gospel-Propagation Society in Staten 
Island, and now elected bishop by the clergy of Connecti- 
cut, had sailed for England to obtain consecration there 
Besides the certificate of his election, Dr. Seabury bore 
with him testimonial, from the leading clergy of New- 
York,! and letters earnestly requesting of the English 
bishops the boon which America had so long sought in 
vain. 

Dr. Seabury reached England at a time when the 
mutual relations between this country and her late colonies 
were new and uncertain, and when the government at 
home were full of care lest any apparent interference on 
their part should stir up the jealousy of new-born inde- 
pendence. Hence, when Dr. Seabury made his applica- 
tion to the Archbishop of York, (the see of Canterbury 
being vacant,) he found at once great difficulties in his 
way. Without a special act of parliament, the archbishop 
could not consecrate a citizen of America ; for no subject 

* March 1783. 

f He had been treated with great severity by the insurgents 
daring the revolutionary war ; and though hunted from place to 
place, and more than once imprisoned, had maintained his ministry 
till the last moment. 



SCOTCH BISHOPS. 149 

of a foreign state could take the oath of allegiance, to dis- 
pense with which the archbishop had no power ; and for 
such an act ministers would not apply, until they were 
assured that the step would not offend America. De- 
lay and uncertainty became thus unavoidable ; whilst the 
motives which had led to the attempt pressed strongly on 
Dr. Seabury. Under these circumstances, he looked anx- 
iously around, to see if he could properly obtain from any 
other quarter the Episcopal succession. The Church in 
Scotland at once attracted his attention. There the true 
succession, derived of old time from ours, was carefully 
preserved; whilst the bishops, unlike those in England, 
were fettered by no connexion with the state. The Pres- 
byterian kirk had been long established in Scotland, and 
the Episcopalians were barely tolerated there. They con- 
sequently would be able, without any application to the 
state, so to vary, if need were, the form of consecration, as 
to make it suit a citizen of the American republic. 

Other circumstances had been preparing the way for 
this application. In the autumn of 1732, before the recog- 
nition of the independence of the North American colonies, 
the attention of the Scottish bishops had been specially 
called to the state of the Church there. In October of 
that year, Dr. George Berkeley, eldest son of the great 
Bishop Berkeley, the heir of his father's virtues, and of his 
interest in the welfare of America, writing to the Rev. 
Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Skinner, expressed his hope, " that 
a most important good might ere long be derived to the 
suffering and nearly neglected sons of Protestant Episco- 
pacy on the other side of the Atlantic, from the suffering 
Church of Scotland." "American rebellion," he continues, 
11 has widened her religious, or rather irreligious, bottom 
so extensively, as to require, from those who bear office 
under her baleful shade, a simple declaration ' that they 
believe in the existence of the Supreme Being.' I would 
humbly submit it to the bishops of the Church in Scotland 
(as we style her in Oxford), whether this be not a time 
peculiarly favorable to the introduction of the Protestant 
Episcopate on the footing of universal toleration, and be- 
fore any anti-Episcopal establishment shall have taken 



150 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

place. God direct the hearts of your prelates in this 
matter."* 

Such a suggestion as this, from such a quarter, attrac- 
ted immediate attention. Dr. George Berkeley was a 
man of the highest station in the English Church. He had 
been the intimate friend of the late Archbishop Seeker, 
was himself a prebendary of Canterbury, and had two years 
before refused the bishopric of Killala. The episcopalians 
of Scotland had been little accustomed to any great respect 
in England, and were therefore the more attracted by such 
an overture. Many difficulties, however, met them on the 
threshold, but none to which Dr. Berkeley would yield. 
"As to American Protectant episcopacy (for popish pre- 
lacy hath found its way into the transatlantic world), one 
sees not any thing complicated or difficult in the mere 
planting it. A bishop consecrated by the English or 
Irish Church would find considerably stronger prejudices 
against him in the revolted colonies, than would one who 
had been called to the highest order by a bishop or bishops 
of the Scotch Church ; our bishops, and those of Ireland, 
having been nominated by a sovereign against whom the 
colonists have rebelled, and whom you have never recog- 
nised. The Americans would, even many of the episco- 
palians among them, entertain political jealousies concern- 
ing a bishop by any means connected withes ; they would 
be apt to think of him as of a foe to their wild projects of 
independency, &c. 

" I am as far removed from Erastianism and from de- 
mocracy as any man ever was ; I do heartily abominate 
both of those anti-scriptural systems. Had my honored 
father's scheme for planting an episcopal college, whereof 
he was to have been president, in the Summer Islands, 
not been sacrificed by the worst minister that Britain ever 
saw, probably under a mild monarch, (who loves the 
Church of England as much as I believe his grandfather 
hated it), episcopacy would have been established in Ame- 
rica by succession from the English Church, unattended 
by any invidious temporal rank or power. But the dis- 

* MS. Seabury papers. The italics are those of the original letter. 



SCOTCH BISHOPS. 151 

senting miscellaneous interest in England has watched, 
with too successful a jealousy, over the honest intentions of 
our best bishops. . . . 

" From the Churches of England and Ireland America 
will not now receive the episcopate ; if she might, I am 
persuaded that many of her sons would joyfully receive 
bishops from Scotland. The question, then, shortly is, Can 
any proper persons be found who, with the spirit of confess- 
ors, would convey the great blessing of the Protestant epis- 
copate from the persecuted Church of Scotland to the 
struggling persecuted Protestant episcopalian worshippers 
in America ? If so, is it not the duty of all and every 
bishop of the Church in Scotland to contribute towards the 
sending into the new world Protestant bishops, before gene- 
ral assemblies can be held and covenants taken, for their 
perpetual exclusion ? Liberavi animam meam. 

u Deeply convinced as I am of the necessity of episco- 
pacy towards the constitution of a Christian Church, I 
hope that no consideration would (I know that no consider- 
ation ought to) restrain me in this matter, if I was a bishop. 
A Scotch bishop consecrating one or more good men, of 
sound ecclesiastical principles, might now sow a seed which, 
in smallness resembling that of mustard, might also resem- 
ble it in subsequent magnificence and amplitude of produc- 
tion. I humbly conceive that a bishop at Philadelphia, 
who. had never sworn to king George, would be very well 
placed. The Quakers are a tolerating people. I have 
written to you cur rente calamo. 

" If, as I suspect, persecution shall have tended to damp 
the spirits of our right reverend fathers in Scotland, J, (who 
never knew experimentally what persecution meant,) must 
not presume to censure. Zeal without knowledge — (with- 
out knowledge of one's own heart) — is a dreadful enemy 
of true religion."* 

In answer to these earnest representations, Bishop Skin- 
ner (for he had just been raised to the episcopate) laid be- 
fore his friend the great difficulties which opposed them- 
selves to such a course. 

* MS. Seabury papers. 



152 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" Nothing," he suggests, " can be done in the affair 
with safety on our side, till the independence of America 
be fully and irrevocably recognised by the government of 
Britain ; and even then the enemies of our Church might 
make a handle of our correspondence with the colonies, as a 
proof that we always wished to fish in troubled waters — and 
we have little need to give any ground for an imputation of 
that kind.' , He urges, further, the difficulty of finding a 
proper person, and the uncertainty of his reception in Ame- 
rica. To all this Dr. Berkeley answers, on the 24th of 
March : — 

"I beg leave to observe, with all becoming deference, 
that I cannot consider the immediate and unsolicited in- 
troduction of episcopacy into America in the same light 
wherein it is viewed by yourself and your venerable bre- 
thren, the bishops of the Scotch Church. 

" From the papists one learns that no time is to be 
lost, and that substances are to be preferred to shadows — 
things* essential, to the paraphernalia of a Church. If 
I. ever wrote a sentence under the influence of an humble 
spirit, I write so at this moment, when I do yet adventure 
to differ from my fathers in Christ. A consecration in 
Scotland might be very secret ; it could not be so elsewhere. 
A consecration from a persecuted, depressed Church, 
which is barely tolerated, would not alarm the prejudices 
of opponents. I need not say to Bishop Skinner or his 
brethren, that an episcopal Church may exist without any 
legal encouragement or establishment, and without the 
definition of country into regular and hounded dioceses. 
Provincial assemblies will never invite a prelate ; provin- 
cial assemblies, if they establish anything, will establish 
some human device; but provincial assemblies will not, 
now or soon, think of excluding a Protestant bishop, who 
sues only for toleration. Popish prelates are now in North 
America exercising their functions over a willing people, 
without any aid or encouragement from provincial assem- 
blies. In a short time, we must expect all Protestant 
episcopalian principles to be totally lost in America. They 

* The italics throughout are preserved from the original letter. 



APPLICATION TO SCOTCH BISHOPS. 153 

are not so now ; and yet episcopacy must be sent before it 
be asked : these are lukewarm days. Christianity waited 
not at the first, the Church of Rome waits not now, for 
any invitation or encouragement. Bishop G-eddes told me 
that the pope allows him 251. per annum, and that he has 
no other settled support ; the other popish bishops in Scot- 
land have 51. each per annum from the Bishop of Home. 
Out of Scotland there is but little known concerning the 
episcopal Church there ; and, generally it is conceived to 
be a society purely political. I believe a secret subscrip- 
tion could be raised, adequate to the purposes of support- 
ing one pious, sensible, discreet bishop, at least for a season 
after his arrival in Virginia ; and I think I know one person 
competent and willing for the great work."^ 

Thus matters stood when Dr. Seabury reached Eng- 
land ; and finding the difficulties which beset his applica- 
tion to the English bishops for the present insurmountable, 
began to turn his eyes to Scotland. In Nov. 1783, a letter 
was despatched by Mr. Elphinston, a man of literary repu- 
tation, the son of a Scotch clergyman, in which the follow- 
ing question was put to the primus or presiding bishop of 
the Church in Scotland : " Can consecration be obtained 
in Scotland for an already dignified and well-vouched 
American clergyman, now at London, for the purpose of 
perpetuating the episcopal reformed Church in America, 
particularly in Connecticut?"! 

At the same time, Dr. Berkeley thus re-opened his 
correspondence with Bishop Skinner : — " I have this day 
heard, I need not add with the sincerest pleasure, that a 
respectable presbyter, well recommended from America, 
has arrived in London, seeking what, it seems, in the present 
state of affairs, he cannot expect to receive in our Church. 

" Surely, dear sir, the Scotch prelates, who are not 
shackled by any Erastian connexion, will not send this 
suppliant empty away. 

" I scruple not to give it as my decided opinion, that 
the king, some of his cabinet counsellors, all our bishops 
(except, peradventure, the Bishop of St. Asaph), and all 

* MS. Seabury papers. t lb. 

7* 



154 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the learned and respectable clergy in our Church, will at 
least secretly rejoice, if a Protestant bishop be sent from 
Scotland to America ; but more especially if Connecticut 
be the scene of his ministry. It would be waste of words 
to say anything by the way of stirring up Bishop Skinner's 
zeal."* 

The Scotch bishops, in reply, required information as 
to the personal merits of the candidate for the episcopate, 
as well as on the hindrances with which he had met in 
England. Or both points Dr. Berkeley answered them, 
urging strongly that they need anticipate no opposition 
from the English government to their granting "a conse- 
cration, which can contradict no law, for a foreign and 
an independent state. My reading/' he continues, "does 
not enable me to comprehend how, without an episcopacy, 
the gospel, together with all its divine institutions, can pos- 
sibly be propagated. In the present state of matters, I do 
not see how the English primate can, without royal license 
at least, if not parliamentary likewise, proceed to conse- 
crate any bishop, except for those districts which erst were 
allowed to give titles to assistant bishops. In this state of 
things, I think the glory of communicating a Protestant 
episcopacy to the united independent states of America 
seems reserved for the Scotch bishops. Whatever is done 
herein ought assuredly to be done very quickly, else the 
never-ceasing endeavors of the English dissenters, whose 
intolerance has kept back the blessing of prelacy from the 
Protestant prelatists of America, will stir up too probably 
a violent spirit in Connecticut against the bishop in fieri. 
If the Church of England was to send a bishop into any 
one of the United States of America, the congress might, 
and probably would, exclaim, that England had violated 
the peace, and still claimed a degree of supremacy over 
the subjects of that independent state. The episcopal 
Church of Scotland cannot be suspected of aiming at supre- 
macy of any kind, or over any people. I do therefore earn- 
estly hope, that, very shortly, she may send a prelate to 
the aid of transatlantic aspirants for the primitive ordinance 
of confirmation. "t 

* MS. Seabury papers. t Ibid. 



dr. seabury' s application. 155 

The Scotch bishops now expressed, in answer, " their 
warmest approbation of the new proposal." Their primus 
(Bishop Kilgour) expressed his " hearty concurrence in the 
proposal for introducing Protestant episcopacy into Ame- 
rica. All things," he continues, " bid fair for the candi- 
date. I hope, indeed, that the motion is from, and the 
plan laid under, the direction of the Holy Spirit. But as 
it is a matter of the greatest importance, it is necessary 
we go about our part in it with the utmost circumspec- 
tion." " The very prospect," writes another bishop, " re- 
joices me greatly ; and considering the great depositum 
committed to us, I do not see how we can account to our 
great Lord and Master, if we neglect such an opportunity 
of promoting His truth, and enlarging the borders of His 
Church."* 

At length, upon the 31st of August, 1784, Dr. Seabury 
made a distinct application to the Scottish bishops. " I 
thought it my duty," he says, referring to his application 
for English consecration, " to pursue the plan marked out 
for me by the clergy of Connecticut, as long as there was 
a probable chance of succeeding. That probability is now 
at an end ; and I think myself at liberty to pursue such 
other schemes as shall ensure to them a valid episcopacy. 
Such I take the Scotch episcopacy to be, in every sense of 
the word ; and such, I know, the clergy of Connecticut 
consider it, and always have done so. But the connexion 
that has always subsisted between them and the Church of 
England, and the generous support they have hitherto re- 
ceived from that Church, naturally led them, though now 
no longer a part of the British dominions, to apply to that 
Church in the first instance for relief in their spiritual ne- 
cessity. Unhappily the ministry have refused to permit a 
bishop to be consecrated without the formal request, or at 
least consent, of congress, which there is no chance of ob- 
taining, and which the clergy of Connecticut would not 
apply for, were the chance ever so good. They are content 
with having the episcopal Church in Connecticut put upon 
the same footing with every other religious denomination. A 

* MS. Seabury papers. 



156 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

copy of a law of the state of Connecticut, which enables the 
episcopal congregations to transact their ecclesiastical af- 
fairs upon their own principles, to tax their members for 
the maintenance of their clergy, for the support of their 
worship, for the building and repairing of churches, and 
which exempts them from all penalties and from all other 
taxes on a religious account, I have in my possession. The 
legislature of Connecticut know that a bishop is applied 
for ; they know the person in whose favor the application 
is made ; and they give no opposition to either. Indeed, 
were they disposed to object, they have more prudence than 
to attempt to obstruct it. They know that there are in 
that state more than seventy episcopal congregations ; 
many of them large ; some of them making a majority of 
the inhabitants of large towns, and, with those that are 
scattered through the state, composing a body of near or 
quite 40,000 — a body too large to be needlessly affronted 
in an elective government. 

" On this ground it is that I apply to the good bishops 
in Scotland ; and I hope I shall not apply in vain. If they 
consent to impart the episcopal succession to the Church 
of Connecticut, they will, I think, do a good work, and 
the blessing of thousands will attend them. And perhaps 
for this cause, among others, God's providence has sup- 
ported them, and contiued their succession, under various 
and great difficulties, that a free, valid, and purely eccle- 
siastical episcopacy may, from them, pass into the western 
world. As to any thing which I receive here, it has no 
influence on me, and never has had any. I indeed think 
it my duty to conduct the matter in such a manner as 
shall risk the salaries which the missionaries in Connecti- 
cut receive from the society here as little as possible ; and 
I persuade myself it may be done, so as to make that risk 
next to nothing. With respect to my own salary, if the 
society choose to withdraw it, I am ready to part with it. 

" It is a matter of some consequence to me that this 
affair be determined as soon as possible. I am anxious to 
return to America this autumn ; and the winter is fast ap- 
proaching, when the voyage will be attended with double 
inconvenience and danger, and the expense of continuing 



OBJECTION TO HIS CONSECRATION. 157 

here another winter is greater than will suit my purse. I 
know you will give me the earliest intelligence in your 
power ; and I shall patiently wait till I hear from you. 
My most respectful regards attend the right reverend gen- 
tlemen under whose consideration this business will come ; 
and as there are none but the most open and candid inten- 
tions on my part, so I doubt not of the most candid and 
fair construction of my conduct on their part."** 

One more hindrance was interposed to the fulfilment 
of these wishes. When the Scotch bishops had resolved 
to consecrate, an earnest appeal was sent to them from an 
American clergyman, whose own views, as it afterwards 
appeared, would be in some measure thwarted by the con- 
secration of Dr. Seabury ; but who now assured them that 
he desired " to divert a heavy stroke from episcopacy, 
which was likely to suffer through this consecration," 
which, he asserted, was " against the earnest and sound 
advice of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, to 
whom Dr. Seabury' s design was communicated, they not 
thinking him a fit person, especially as he was actively 
and deeply engaged against congress ; that he would by 
this forward step render episcopacy suspected there, the 
people not having had time, after a total derangement of 
their civil affairs, to consider as yet of ecclesiastical ; and 
if it were unexpectedly and rashly introduced among them 
at the instigation of a few clergy only that remain, with- 
out their being consulted, would occasion it to be entirely 
slighted, unless with the approbation of the state they be- 
long to ; which is what they are laboring after just now, 
having called several provincial meetings together this 
autumn, to settle some preliminary articles of a Protestant 
episcopal Church, as near as may be to that of England 

or Scotland See," he concludes, " if you value 

your own peace and advantage as a Christian society, that 
your bishops meddle not in this consecration," feet 

When this letter reached Scotland, Dr. Seabury was 
there. • His sincerity and zeal convinced Bishop Skinner 
of his great fitness for the post to which he was designed. 

* MS. Seabury papers. f Ibid. 



158 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

The concurrence of the clergy of Connecticut was easily 
established ; and Dr. Berkeley having ascertained that the 
English primate, though he could not give to it a formal 
sanction, was yet by no means hostile to the step,^ all dif- 
ficulties were removed, and he was solemnly admitted 
into the episcopate at Aberdeen on the 14th day of Novem- 
ber, 1784, by three bishops of the Scottish Church (the 
whole college then consisting but of four) — namely, Bishops 
Kilgour, Petre, and Skinner, of Aberdeen, Ross, and Mo- 
ray. After his consecration, which was in the Scottish 
form, the new bishop signed, on behalf of his brethren in 
America, certain articles which might serve as a basis for 
permanent and friendly intercourse between the sister 
Churches. Shortly after, he returned to London, whence 
on the first of March he was about to sail for America in 
the ship Triumph, " the master of which was his particu- 
lar acquaintance ; a friendly obliging man and a good 
Churchman, and very anxious to have the honor of carry- 
ing over the Bishop of all America." 

By the " latter end of June" Bishop Seabury was 
again in Connecticut. His " reception from the inha- 
bitants" was "friendly," and he " met with no disrespect."! 
The Presbyterian ministers appeared to be rather alarmed ; 
and, in consequence of his arrival, assumed and gave 
to one another the style and title of bishops, which formerly 
they reprobated as a remnant of popery. On the 3rd of 
August he met his clergy, and "joyful indeed was the 
meeting." The letter from the good bishops and the con- 
cordat were laid before them, "and cordially received." 
Only as to one article, which engaged them to receive the 
Scotch form for the admistration of the Holy Eucharist, it 
was thought best to wait for a season until by preaching 

* Dr. Berkeley wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, that ap- 
plication had been made by Dr. Seabury to the Scottish bishops for 
consecration, and begged that, if his Grace thought the bishops here 
ran any risk in complying with Seabury's request, he would 
be so good as to give Dr. Berkeley notice immediately; but if 
his Grace was satisfied that there was no danger, there was no 
occasion to give any answer. No answer came." A ms. note of Bp. 
Skinner's on Dr. Seabury's letter of application. 
f MS Letter of Bp. Seabury to Bp. Skinner, 



FIRST CONVENTION* 159 

and conversation the minds of the communicants were pre- 
pared for receiving the Scots office. They feared, too, to en- 
sourage by their example a disposition to effect changes in 
the Liturgy, which had showed itself in the- south. Such 
was Bishop Seabury's entrance upon the duties of his office. 

He arrived at a critical time for the American Church. 
The first general convention was soon to meet at Philadel- 
phia ; and the knowledge that a bishop already pre- 
sided over one of their Churches, greatly strengthened 
the hands of those who desired at once to apply for the 
episcopate. 

The first American convention met according to ap- 
pointment, in October 1785, at Philadelphia ; seven 
out of the thirteen states sent to it deputies both 
clerical and lay, and they entered at once on their 
important duties. Three, leading subjects claimed their 
chief attention. The first of these was the general ec- 
clesiastical constitution of the meditated union ; the se- 
cond, the formation of a common liturgy ; the third, the 
steps to be taken for obtaining an American episcopate. 

Upon the two first questions warm discussion arose. 
The various tempers of the eastern and the southern 
states were soon displayed. Thus, on the general terms 
of union, the two parties disagreed ; one proposing to 
declare the bishop ex-officio president of the convention ; 
the others fearful of the bishop's power, and so denying 
him this right. The grounds too of this difference lay 
deep. The southern states would have restrained the 
bishop from all rule ; made him subject to his own conven- 
tion ; and distinguished him from other presbyters only by 
his possession of the powers of ordaining and confirming. 
The eastern states, with a more instructed faith, truly ac- 
knowledged the bishop as possessing, by the appointment 
of Christ, the charge of spiritual government. Their ten- 
dency, indeed, lay strongly to the opposite extreme. They 
would not only have given to the bishop spiritual rule, but 
would have deprived the laity of that power of co-ordi- 
nate deliberation and assent, which appear to have been in 
the earliest times their Christian birthright. The plans of 
the eastern Churchmen would have excluded from conven- 



160 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tions all lay deputies, and confined deliberation on things 
ecclesiastical to those in holy orders. 

The like difference was shown in the revision of the 
Book of Common Prayer. While one of the Virginian de- 
puties proposed to omit the four first petitions of the Litany, 
in order to get rid of the direct acknowledgment of the 
Trinity in the adorable Godhead ; and whilst in Virginia 
generally the rule most objected to in all the Prayer-book 
was that which allowed the minister to repel from the Eu- 
charist notorious evil-livers : the wishes of the eastern 
states would have restored to the Communion-service some 
of those early devotions which the peculiar aspect of their 
times had led the Anglican reformers most wisely to omit. 

Such differences boded ill for the result of the conven- 
tion ; but the meek wisdom of its president brought it to a 
safe and harmonious conclusion. Doubtful things were left 
for discussion when their body should be fully organised. 
Whether the bishop should preside or not, remained for the 
present undetermined ; but the point was at once conceded 
in practice, and afterwards adopted willingly as law. A 
proposed Book of Common Prayer, varying as little from 
the English ritual as the temper of the council would al- 
low, was suggested to the various state conventions ; and 
the time thus gained saved the Church from the direct 
proposal of many alterations, which, if they had been all 
at once resisted stiffly, would have been as hotly urged 
upon the other side. 

On the measures to be taken for obtaining the episco- 
pate the convention happily agreed. Bishop Seabury had 
declined, with his clergy, attending its session, from a fear 
that it would carry measures to which his principles would 
not allow him to assent. The southern states were known 
to hold loose opinions upon church matters, and expected evils 
were greatly exaggerated. " I have thought it my duty," 
writes a clerical correspondent of Bishop Skinner, in 1736, 
" to advise you and the college of bishops of the ancient 
Church of Scotland, of the tendency of the bill just brought 
into the House of Lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
to enable the English bishops to consecrate for foreign 
countries, viz. the overthrow of Bishop Seabury of Connee- 



VARIOUS OPINIONS IN CONVENTION. 161 

ticut. Dr. Smith, Dr. White, and Dr. Provoost, three So- 
cinians, have been recommended to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, for consecration ; the first to be Bishop of 
Maryland, the second of Pennsylvania, the third of 
New- York, who are to be answerable to a consistory, com- 
posed of presbyters and lay delegates," All this was 
gross exaggeration ; but Bishop Seabury had ground for 
apprehension. The doctrinal tenets of one of the two first 
elected bishops were probably not wholly orthodox ; and 
Dr. Smith, who was generally named for the episcopate, 
was an ambitious and dangerous man, with low views of 
the Church, and great self-confidence. Accordingly the 
bishop thought it safer to remain away from the conven- 
tion, writing an apology^ for not appearing, and explaining 
plainly and fully his sentiments concerning their general 
mode of procedure, and especially their degradation of the 
episcopal dignity. But though he was not present, his ex- 
perience helped to guide their decision. It was at once 
resolved, that the succession should be obtained, if possible, 
at the hands of the English rather than the Scottish bi- 
shops.! To this end an address of convention to the Eng- 
lish bench was drawn up and signed, and a sub-committee 
named to communicate with the archbishop ; while, to 
remove all political objections, the deputies applied to the 
executive within the various states for a certified assent to 
the request now urged. 

These points being settled, and a general ecclesiastical 

* MS. Letter of Bp. Seabury to Bp. Skinner. 

•j- My attention has been called, by a paper in the Christian 
Observer, August 1845, to a letter from Granville Sharpe, Esq., in 
1780, in which he states that this decision was the result of his ad- 
vice to the convention. That great and good man had long been 
zealous in the great cause of American episcopacy, and had labored 
diligently with the archbishop on the one side, and his American 
friends on the other, to obtain the succession for the West. His bio- 
grapher, however (Prince Hoare, Esq.), overstates, I think, his ac- 
tual services in saying of them, " Few, if any, examples can be found 
of more momentous or more successful exertions in the service of the 
Church. By the active intelligence of a single person, the mutual 
prejudices and doubts of the two countries were removed, and the 
functions of the episcopal order duly established in America." Life 
of Granville Sharpe, part ii. c. vii. p. 231. 



162 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

constitution ratified, which provided for a triennial con- 
vention, to consist, besides the bishops, of deputies, not 
more than four, clerical and lay, from the Church in every 
state, who should vote state by state, each order possessing 
a negative upon the other, the clergy of each state being 
subject only to its own ecclesiastical authorities, — the 
council adjourned until the following June, when it hoped 
to receive the answer of the English bishops. 

The address of the convention, with certificates from 
the executives of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 
New- York, was forwarded to the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, through the American minister. The part taken by 
Mr. Adams is highly to his credit. JN"ot himself an episco- 
palian, and so well aware of all the prejudices which his 
conduct might excite, that he deemed it " bold, daring, 
and hazardous to himself and his,"* he made, without 
hesitation, the required address to the archbishop. Here, 
again, the consecration of Dr. Seabury had greatly pre- 
pared the way. He had been well received in America, 
and it was plain that if the mother Church continued to 
refuse the boon, she would effectually alienate her western 
daughter. The archbishop's answer was received by the 
committee in the following spring. It expressed, on his 
part and on that of all the English bishops, an anxious 
readiness to grant the episcopal succession to America, but 
delayed giving a specific pledge until they bad seen the 
intended alterations in the liturgy and the proposed eccle- 
siastical constitution. " "While we are anxious/' they con- 
cluded, " to give every proof not only of our brotherly affec- 
tion, but of our facility in forwarding your wishes, we can- 
not but be extremely cautious lest we should be the instru- 
ments of establishing an ecclesiastical system which will 
be called a branch of the Church of England, but after- 
wards may possibly appear to have departed from it essen- 
tially either hi doctrine or hi discipline." 

Another letter soon followed, written after the receipt 
of the amended liturgy, and pointing out some changes in 
it with which the English bishops were dissatisfied. 

* Letter to Bp. "White, Oct. 27, 1814. 



ENGLISH BISHOPS' REMONSTRANCE. 163 

Amongst these were some unnecessary verbal alterations, 
and the disuse of the Athanasian Creed. But that to 
which they mainly objected was the omission of the Nicene 
Creed, and one clause in the Apostles'" (" He descended 
into hell"). With one provision also of the constitution 
they found fault, from its seeming to subject bishops to 
trial by the laity and the inferior clergy ; and they sug- 
gested hints as to the care that should be taken in the 
choice of those who were to be elected bishops, reminding 
the convention that the credit of the English Church would 
be at stake in the prosperity of this her daughter branch. 
On these points, therefore, they expressed their earnest hope 
that the ensuing convention would give them satisfaction, 
in which expectation they would at once prepare a bill, by 
which the necessary powers would be imparted to them. 
Before this letter reached America, the convention had as- 
sembled and revised the constitution in the very point to 
which the bishops had objected, but the alterations in the 
liturgy remained untouched. Great fault had been found 
with them by all the more consistent Churchmen of Ame- 
rica. " I learn from others," writes Bishop Seabury to his 
friends the Scottish bishops, " that at this convention they 
have discarded the use, at least left it discretional, of the 
Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, and the observation of 
saints' -days ; omitted the article of the descent into hell, 
in the Apostles' Creed ; reduced the Thirty-nine articles to 
twenty ; made such alterations in the liturgy and offices as 
makes a new Prayer-book necessary." 

On receiving the remonstrance from the English bishops, 
it was resolved, by the committee charged with the nego- 
tiation, that these points should again be taken into full 
consideration ; and for this purpose the convention was 
called together in October. There was a general wish to 
satisfy the English prelates, of which the friends of peace 
made careful use. They might, indeed, receive the true 
succession from the Scottish bishops, and by the Danes 
it had been already offered ; but the whole body earnestly 
desired to receive it from the Church which had originally 
sent them forth. In this spirit they entered on the ques- 
tion, and, after full debate, resolved to restore to its place 



164 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the clause they had omitted in the Apostles' Creed, and to 
replace in their liturgy that of Nicaea. On some minor 
points, and as to the liturgical employment of the Athana- 
sian Creed, they still affirmed their former sentence. 

With these concessions they doubted not the English 
prelates would be satisfied, and they proceeded therefore 
to sign the testimonials of three presbyters, the Rev. Wil- 
liam White, the Rev. Samuel Provoost, and the Rev. David 
Griffith, who had been elected to the office of a bishop by 
the conventions of Pennsylvania, New- York, and Virginia. 
Early in the following month, Dr. White and Dr. Provoost 
sailed for England. A painful cause is given for Dr. Grif- 
fith's absence from their company. He was too poor to 
bear the necessary cost of such a journey, and the Virginian 
Church had not raised funds to forward him upon his way. 
On Wednesday the 29th of November, the bishops elect 
arrived in London, and on the following Monday they were 
presented by Mr. Adams, the American ambassador, to the 
Archbishop at Lambeth. Several interviews succeeded. 
The conclusions of the convention, and the testimonials of 
the bishops, satisfied the English prelates; and after a gra- 
tifying audience of the king, on Sunday, the 4th of Febru- 
ary, 1787, in the Archiepiscopal Chapel of Lambeth, these 
two presbyters of the Church of America were consecrated 
bishops by the two archbishops and the bishops of Bath 
and Wells and Peterborough. Thus, at last, did England 
grant to the daughter Church this great and necessary 
boon. 

For almost two whole centuries had she, by evil coun- 
sels, been persuaded to withhold it, until, as it would seem, 
the fierce struggle of the war of independence, and the loss 
of these great colonies, chastised her long neglect, and by a 
new and utterly unlooked-for issue, led her to discharge 
this claim of right. Awful, doubtless, was the hour to 
these two when the holy office was conferred upon them ; 
when, at the hands of him, whom Bishop "White, full of 
affectionate respect for his mother Church, calls this "great 
and good archbishop," they were set apart to bear into the 
western wilderness the likeness and the office of the first 
apostles. Solemn must have been their landing on the 7th 



LANDING OF THE BISHOPS. 165 

of April, the afternoon of Easter Sunday (1787), upon the 
shores of their own land, as the especial witnesses of that 
resurrection of which "the holy Church throughout all the 
world" was on that day keeping glad remembrance, — the 
especial stewards of those mysteries which she was on that 
day dispensing unto all her faithful children. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Convention assembles — Case of Dr. Bass — Bishop Seabury joins the 
Convention — The Liturgy — First and succeeding consecrations — 
Period of depression — Its causes — Ecclesiastical constitution — 
Parish — Diocese — Convention — Laity in convention — Anglo-Saxon 
usage — Difficulties of true organization in America — Neglect of 
the mother country. 

The Church assembled in convention after the arrival of 
the bishops at Philadelphia, July 28, 1787. For the first 
time it was gathered together in the full likeness of that 
council to which " the apostles and elders came together 
at Jerusalem."^ For now, as then^it met with bishops 
at its head, with presbyters and deacons, each in their own 
order, ministering under them, and with the laity, " the 
multitude of the faithful," taking solemn counsel for the 
welfare of their Zion. 

There was great need in that synod of meekness and 
heavenly wisdom. The minds of men were still angry and 
unsettled. They knew little of the principles on which 
they were to act ; and points of the utmost delicacy and 
moment were sure to come under consideration. On the 
third day of their meeting, after some preliminary business, 
an application from the clergy of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire gave rise to much discussion. The " act" of 
these states, after setting forth their " gratitude to God for 
having lately blessed the Protestant Episcopal Church hi 
the United States of America with a complete and entire 
ministry," proceeded to declare that to secure for their 
people " the benefit and advantage of those offices, the 
administration of which belongs to the highest order of the 
ministry, and to encourage and promote a union of the 
whole Episcopal Church in their states, and to perfect and 

* Acts iv. 6. 



BISHOP SEABURY JOINS THE CONVENTION. 167 

compact this mystical body of Christ, we do hereby nomi- 
nate, elect, and appoint the Hev. Edward Bass, a presbyter 
of the Church, to be our bishop : and we do promise and 
engage to receive him as such, and to render to him all 
canonical obedience and submission, when canonically con- 
secrated and invested with the apostolic office and powers. 
And we now address the right reverend the bishops in the 
states of Connecticut, New- York, and Pennsylvania, pray- 
ing their united assistance in consecrating our said brother, 
and canonically investing him with the apostolic office and 
powers." 

This address brought at once before the convention the 
relation of Bishop Seabury to its own body, and to the two 
bishops of the English line. Happily Bishop Provoost was 
not at Philadelphia, and it was therefore left to the mode- 
rate and healing spirit of his brother bishop to frame an 
answer to the clergy of the east. The convention first 
solemnly recorded its conviction of the rightful consecration 
of the Bishop of Connecticut ; and afterwards resolved that 
a " complete order of bishops, derived as well under the 
English as the Scottish line of Episcopacy, now subsisted 
within the United States ; and that they were fully com- 
petent to every proper act and duty of a bishop's office." 
It further proceeded to express its wish that these three 
bishops (the number always held canonically necessary for 
a rightful consecration) should proceed to consecrate the 
elected bishop of the eastern clergy, so soon as the New- 
England Churches should have agreed in convention to 
articles of disciple and union with the general body. 

To allow time for this union, the convention, after a 
session often days, agreed to a two-months' adjournment, 
having first determined that as soon as the united Church 
possessed three bishops, the members of that order should 
constitute a separate house from that of the clerical and 
lay deputies. 

On the 29th of September 1787, the adjourned session 
opened ; and, to the joy of all, the attendance of Bishop 
Seabury and two of his New-England clergy was announced. 
Their presence was indeed important ; for it not only se- 
cured the union of the Church throughout the several 



168 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

states, but it brought to those counsels by which their 

infant institutions must be formed, the aid of principles 

which were most wanting" in the southern states. Amongst 

... . 

them the prevailing tone, both as to discipline and doctrine, 

was low and uncertain. Hence had arisen the desire of 
removing from the opening of the litany the addresses to 
the blessed Trinity. Hence their jealousy of even the 
lightest discipline. Hence, too, it happened that the lay 
deputy sent by Virginia to convention was an ordained 
presbyter, who, in the time of the Church's sufferings, had 
renounced his orders. And thus, all through this conven- 
tion, he who, in purer times, would have been marked out 
for spiritual censure, took, without doubt or remonstrance, 
a leading part in fashioning the discipline and order of 
their infant communion. To a temper thus bordering on 
latituclinarian views, Bishop White, if he had stood alone, 
would, from natural kindness, and perhaps from personal 
inclination, have been too much disposed to yield, and some 
fatal bias might have been given to their earliest institu- 
tions ; but in the presence of Bishop Seabury and those 
about him, a check was provided on such innovations. 
With the strongest attachment to the distinctive articles 
of the Christian faith, the New-England clergy held, 
as we have seen, most firmly to the model of apostolical 
order ; and in these counteracting tendencies was the 
best hope of the convention coming to a safe and sound 
conclusion. 

This difference of views between the east and south 
was seen at once. Before the eastern clergy gave in their 
adhesion to the articles of union, they required that, by the 
alteration of the third, there should be given to the board 
of bishops the power of originating acts for the concurrence 
of the lower house, with a negative on their conclusions. 
The first point was easily conceded. The second, for the 
present, was made the subject of a compromise. It was 
agreed that the non-assent of the bishops should negative 
all acts to which four-fifths of the lower house did not 
still adhere. The absolute negative was referred to the 
collective judgment of the several diocesan conventions. 
Upon this agreement Bishop Seabury, and the three New- 



DANGER FROM LATITUEffNARIAN BIAS. 169 

England presbyters, gave in their adhesion to the general 
constitution, and took their seats in the convention. 

Important matters came at once into discussion. The 
proposed Prayer-book, drawn up in 1785, had kindled a 
flame of opposition. Some were offended at the alterations 
of the English ritual, and more at the want of alteration. 
Its compilers had unwisely printed a large edition, and 
from this were understood to regard it rather as a settled 
than a projected form. The lower house accordingly en- 
tered with some warmth on this discussion. Instead of 
proposing, as before, to take the existing liturgy, and merely 
alter in it what required adjustment, they, the more com- 
pletely to dismiss the obnoxious book, appointed committees 
" to prepare a litany," " to prepare a communion-service," 
" a morning and evening prayer," and other " offices." 

In this they ran no slight peril. Scarcely with any 
thing beside is the well-being of the Church bound up so 
closely as with the full orthodoxy of its liturgies. On this 
depends, not only the unity of all her children, but also, in 
great measure, their whole religious character. Hence 
from the earliest time these have been a matter of especial 
care. By one Council^ it was ordered, " that the prayers, 
prefaces, impositions of hands, which are confirmed by 
the synod, be observed and used by all men ;" and an- 
other! gives the reason for this order, " lest through igno- 
rance or carelessness, any thing contrary to the faith should 
be vented or uttered before God, or offered up to him in the 
church." 

In this wholesome dread, during times of purity, change 
had always been brought cautiously and with a sparing 
hand into the older offices. Nor was there a more certain 
sign and instrument of increasing corruption than when the 
public liturgies, which had been first veiled from common 
sight by the mystery of a learned language, began to em- 
body largely the errors of a later time. These, however, 
were rather additions than substitutions. So that even in 
the worst times the golden thread of primitive truth might 
be traced by the spiritual eye through all the subtle entan- 

w Con. Carth. can. 106. f Council of Milan, can. 12. 

8 



170 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

glement of more modern error. The endeavor of our own 
reformers was, to keep this precious thread unbroken, whilst 
they freed it from the false inventions by which it was well- 
nigh concealed. The old books of common English use had 
been taken by the bishops and doctors to whom this work 
was entrusted ; and from them the new insertions which 
had crept gradually in with the spread of Romish errors 
were cast out, that the oldest offices might still remain 
amongst us, and set the tone of such additions as the change 
of customs and of times required. On this point there had 
been a long and anxious struggle between English Church- 
men and the Puritans ; for these wished for new prayers, 
whilst the true sons of the old English Church strove to 
retain this sure mark and instrument of their oneness with 
the body of Christ from the beginning, that they spoke in 
praise and prayer, and in intercession and confession, as far 
as might be, in the same accents in which their forefathers 
had worshipped God from the time when the little flock 
were gathered in " an upper chamber," where " the doors 
were shut for fear of the Jews." 

The existence of such a liturgy was put at hazard in 
America ; but, by God's blessing, the danger was averted. 
The house of bishops was now duly constituted ; and in the 
continued absence of the Bishop of New York, it was com- 
posed of Bishops Seabury and White. Their first entrance 
on their duties afforded a hopeful promise for the issue ; for 
as meekness ever waits upon true wisdom, there was a to- 
ken of wise counsel in Bishop White's instant cession of 
precedence to his eastern brother on the ground of his seni- 
ority of consecration. Their harmonious action turned 
aside the danger ; they took as their guide the old offices of 
their communion ; and making only needful changes, by 
degrees won over the general voice on nearly every point. 

Bishop White has recorded the remark of a by-stander, 
which strikingly illustrates the working of more thoughtful 
minds at that important crisis : — " When I hear these things 
I look back to the origin of the Prayer-book, and represent 
to my mind the spirits of its venerable compilers ascending 
to heaven in the flames of martyrdom that consumed their 
bodies. I then look at the improvers of this book in ... . 



CHANGES IN THE PRAYER-BOOK. 171 

. and and The consequence is, that I am not 

sanguine in my expectations of the meditated changes in 
the liturgy." 

The character of the chief changes which were made 
is curious and instructive. They show the great peril of 
attempting to improve such fixed and ascertained forms ; 
for they are marked by a tendency to opposite extremes. 
Thus, on the one side, there were struck out from the 
Prayer-book the Athanasian Creed and the absolution in 
the Visitation of the Sick ; whilst the use of the sign of the 
cross in baptism ; and "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" in 
the ordinal, are left to the choice of the minister. Thus, 
also, whilst to the question, " What is the inward part or 
thing signified in the Lord's supper ?" the answer of the 
English Catechism, " The body and blood of Christ, which 
are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful 
in the Lord's supper," is changed into " The body and 
blood of Christ, which are spiritually taken and received 
by the faithful in the Lord's Supper ;" at the same 
time, upon the other side, in the Office for the Holy Com- 
munion there were inserted the prayers of invocation and 
oblation which are contained in the earliest liturgies. These 
had been retained in the first English- Book of Common 
Prayer put forth in the reign of Edward VI. by " the arch- 
bishop and other learned and discreet divines ;"* but upon 
its subsequent revision they were both omitted ; their es- 
sential parts, as our reformers thought, being found in other 
parts of the service, whilst their use must prove dangerous 
at a time when popish superstition had obscured that holy 
mystery, and lowered its spiritual reality to a gross and 
carnal conceit. In the ancient Scottish Prayer-book, which 
was compiled at a later period, these forms had been re- 
stored ; and in it their use was familiar to Bishop Seabury. 
He was disposed to overvalue their presence ; hardly, as 
he owned to Bishop "White, considering the service from 
which they were absent as " amounting strictly to a con- 
secration." He therefore pressed earnestly their restor- 
ation. From his brother bishop he met with no opposition ; 

* a.d. 1548. Statutes at large, vol. ii. p. 393. 



172 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Bishop White having always admired " the beauty of those 
ancient forms, and seeing no superstition in them."* No 
remark of any sort was made on their insertion in the lower 
house ; and they accordingly form part of the American 
Prayer-book.f 

One other important change came into debate. From 
the services of " the proposed Prayer-book" had been struck 
out the whole Nicene Creed, and that clause of the Apos- 
tles' which declares of our Lord that "He descended into 
hell." The Nicene Creed was now reinserted ; and after 

* Appendix to Bishop "White's Memorial. 

f The Communion -office, therefore, is thus altered from our own. 
After what is with us the conclusion of the prayer of consecration, 
the prayer of oblation follows, in these words : " Wherefore, O Lord 
and heavenly Father, according to the institution of Thy dearly be- 
loved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, we Thy humble servants do cele- 
brate and make here before Thy divine Majesty, with these Thy holy 
gifts which we now offer unto Thee, the memorial Thy Son hath 
commanded us to make ; having in remembrance His blessed pas- 
sion and precious death. His mighty resurrection and glorious ascen- 
sion : rendering unto Thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable 
benefits procured unto us by the same." Then succeeds the Invoca- 
tion, in these words: " And we most humbly beseech Thee, mer- 
ciful Father, to hear us ; and, of Thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe 
to bless and sanctify with Thy word and Holy Spirit these Thy gifts 
and creatures of bread and wine, that we, receiving them according to 
Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution in remembrance 
of His death and passion, may be partakers of His most blessed 
body and blood. And we earnestly desire Thy fatherly goodness 
mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; 
most humbly beseeching Thee to grant, that by the merits and death 
of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in His blood, we, and ail 
Thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other 
benefits of His passion. And here we offer and present unto Thee, 
O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and 
living sacrifice unto Thee ; humbly beseeching Thee, that we, and 
all others who shall be partakers of this holy communion, may wor- 
thily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus 
Christ, be filled with Thy grace and heavenly benediction, and be 
made one body with Him, that He may dwell in them and they in 
Him. And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, 
to offer unto Thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech Thee to accept this 
our bounden duty and service, not weighing our merits, but par- 
doning our offences ; through Jesus Christ our Lord ; by whom and 
through whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory 
be unto Thee, Father Almighty, world without end. Amen." 



BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 173 

much discussion, the use of the disputed clause allowed ; 
the lower house not consenting to its absolute adoption. 
In the first printed Prayer-books it was inserted between 
brackets ; but this seeming to stamp it as apocryphal, the 
next coiiTention placed, instead of them, this discretionary 
rubric : " And any Churches may omit the words, { He de- 
scended into hell ;' or may, instead of them, use the words, 
1 He went into the place of departed spirits,' which are 
considered as words of the same meaning in the creed." 

A selection of Psalms, fixed portions of which might 
be used instead of those which came in daily order in the 
Psalter, was inserted in the Prayer-book. This was the 
work of the lower house, and is another instance of the 
risk attending all such changes. The first principle of 
any such selection is manifestly false. It is a denial of the 
great truth, that in those words of inspiration we find the 
spirit-struggles of the King of Israel answer to our own as 
face to face. And this first error led to many others. One 
aim of the compilers was to shorten the service ; their suc- 
cess may be gathered from the words of Bishop White, 
who considers - the omissions as very capricious, and the 
selections in general as having added to the length of the 
morning and evening prayer." Some of his expressions 
show, that even he was unawares drawn, by the fault of 
his position, into an unconscious disrespect to Holy Scrip- 
ture, or he would not have ventured, as if dealing with 
some- human composition, to commend "the excellency of 
psalms overlooked by gentlemen of judgment and taste." 
These were the chief changes in the Common Prayer ; the 
others aiming chiefly, and with small success, at introduc- 
ing greater verbal correctness into our old Saxon dialect. 

Such is the Book of Common Prayer, " declared by the 
bishops, the clergy, and the laity of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in America hi convention to be the liturgy of" 
their "Church:" and upon the whole, in spite of some 
alterations which we must deem unhappy, and more which 
we esteem needless, it remains as a living proof of that 
gratitude which its preface expresses to the Church of 
England, "to which, under God, she is indebted for her 

D * ' m J m 

first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and 



174 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

protection," since, upon the whole, it fulfils the profession, 
that " she is far from intending to depart from the Church 
of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or 
worship, or farther than local circumstances require."* 

The convention broke up without the consecration of 
the elected bishop of Massachusetts ; a direct vote, as we 
have seen, acknowledged Bishop Seabury's consecration ; 
and with his co-operation, Dr. Bass might have been ad- 
mitted to the highest order of the priesthood. But Bishop 
White conceived that he was pledged to the archbishop to 
hand on the English line unmixed. The consecration, 
therefore, was postponed until this engagement should 
have been relaxed. In the event, this proved needless, 
since, in the following year (Sept. 1790) Dr. Madison, 
elected as Bishop of Virginia, crossed to England, and was 
duly consecrated bishop ; and thus, 184 years after her 
planting, the Church in Virginia first saw a bishop of her 
own within her borders. 

The ensuing convention witnessed the first American 
consecration. At its session the upper house consisted of 
Bishops Seabury, White, Provoost, and Madison. This 
first meeting of Bishops Seabury and Provoost was full of 
interest, although the unhappy temper of the latter made 
it a time of much anxiety. Narrow to a high degree in 
mind, and full of prejudice against his eastern brother, the 
Bishop of New- York resisted bitterly the title to presidency, 
which by the canon of the last convention would be his in 
right of seniority ; and was even ready to deny, at all 
hazards, the regularity of his consecration. The first point 
was, with Christian meekness, ceded by the elder bishop ; 
and through the influence of Dr. "White, all further open 
opposition was dropped by Bishop Provoost. 

On the 17th of September, 1792, Dr. Claggett, bishop 
elect, was consecrated by the laying on of hands of Bishops 
Provoost, Seabury, White, and Madison. Thus was the 
Church at last complete in all its functions, and able to 
expand itself as G-od might give it grace and opportunity, 
to meet the many wants of that vast continent in which it 

* Preface to American Common Prayer. 



CHURCH ROOTED IN AMERICA. 175 

was now fully planted. Other consecrations soon succeeded. 
In 1795, Dr. Smith was consecrated bishop of South Caro- 
lina; and in 1797, Dr. Bass of Massachusetts; whilst ha 
the same year Dr. Jar vis was called to succeed the first 
bishop of Connecticut. The system of the Church was 
every day becoming more perfectly consolidated. In the 
conventions of 1792, 1799, and 1801, the question of ar- 
ticles was frequently discussed A r arious opinions from 
time to time seemed to predominate. Some hi leading sta- 
tion, and of great laxity as to the first truths of the faith, 
were, like Bishop Provoost, desirous to avoid entirely what 
they unhappily conceived to be a needless restriction on the 
right of private judgment. Wiser councils defeated this pro- 
posal ; but what should be the articles adopted still remained 
an anxious question. The English articles had been at 
first assumed to be the nucleus of the new collection ; and 
into them such changes as appeared expedient were to be 
inserted. The result may easily be guessed ; one party 
objected to one set of propositions, the retrenchment of a 
second was required by others, until absolute division 
seemed rapidly approaching. In this dilemma it was re- 
solved, as a means of securing peace, that the English 
articles should be received, with such changes only as 
would make them suit republican America, and consist with 
the alterations in the creeds detailed on a former page.^ 

At this time the Church may be considered as rooted 
in that land. Native Bishops witnessed for the resurrec- 
tion of the Lord ; from one, obtained almost by stealth 
from Scotland, they had already multiplied to seven, and 
promised to hand on unbroken the appointed orders of the 
ministry. Already (1795) the first bishop (Seabury) had 
entered on his rest, and his successor been admitted in his 
room into the apostolic college. There was now, in truth, 
an American Church. Of old the proper title of the body 
so described would have been the English Church in Ame- 
rica, if indeed that sickly and almost severed branch could 
claim true union with the parent stock. But it was now 

* The use of the Book of Homilies is suspended until they have 
been cleared from " obsolete phrases and local references." 



176 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

planted in the wide western continent ; and many and 
earnest were the prayers of faithful men, that its branches 
might spread unto the sea and its boughs unto the river. 
It had taken root, as in every other soil ; and good hope 
there was that it would cover the land. The Church 
might now be read there by her distinctive characters. 
This was a great matter gained. For this, through long 
years of weakness and destitution, the most zealous and 
devoted hearts in America had longed and prayed. By a 
most unexpected turn had the answer of those prayers been 
sent as one healing fruit of the American rebellion. Surely 
it was thus given as a reproof to the mother country for 
her long denial to her offspring of the most valuable part 
of their inheritance. 

But though the Church was now thus complete in its 
organisation, it did not as we might fondly hope, shoot forth 
at once into full strength and vigor. Almost every where 
there was much of feebleness about its growth, and there 
were districts in which it seemed to languish and decay. 
" The period through which for some years our narrative 
has been taking us," says Dr. Hawks,^ referring to this 
time, " is one, for the most part, of such gloomy darkness, 
that the smallest ray of light is felt to be a blessing." 
Even when "the dawning light of a blighter day" was 
rising on Virginia, " the journals of the convention by which 
Bishop Moore was elected show the presence of but seven 
clergymen and seventeen laymen. We look back upon 
the past, and are struck with the contrast. Seven clergy- 
men were all that could be convened to transact the most 
important measure which our conventions are ever called 
on to perform, and this in a territory where once more than 
ten times seven regularly served at the altar. We 
look back farther still, and find the Church, after the lapse 
of 200 years, numbering about as many ministers as she pos- 
sessed at the close of the first eight years of her existence." 

But little better is the account of things in Maryland. 
"In 1803 there was a spirit of indifFerenc to religion and 
the Church too extensively prevalent in the parishes; 

* Contributions to Eccl. Hist, of Virginia, p. 295. 



PERIOD OF DEPRESSION. 177 

nearly one half of them were vacant ; in some, all minis- 
terial support had ceased. Some few of the clergy had 
deserted their stations ; and of the residue, several, dis- 
heartened and embarrassed by inadequate means of living, 
had sought subsistence hi other states. Infidelity and 
fanaticism were increasing ; and, on the whole, there never 
was a time when ministers were more needed, or when it 
was more difficult to obtain them. "* In Pennsylvania it 
was much the same. The number of the clergy here 
continued still so small, " that even the old parishes, ex- 
isting before the revolution, could not be supplied, much 
less could the formation of new congregations be at- 
tempted.' ; f Such was the general state of things during 
the first years of this century 

Many causes tended to produce this deep depression ; 
some of these were inherent in the general temper of Ame- 
rican society and manners, but many more may undoubt- 
edly be traced to the peculiar condition under which the 
Church was now established. To gain a clear view of the 
history of those times, we must shortly glance at each of 
these, and endeavor to trace hi action the working of the ec- 
clesiastical constitution as it had been recently remodelled. 
The first great hindrance to its strength was the low tone 
of feeling and of doctrine which in the former days of our 
neglect had crept over its members. There was little at- 
tachment to the Church, little veneration for her charac- 
ter, little knowledge or value of her distinctive claims ; 
there were many recollections of careless shepherds, of 
clergy who had disgraced their calling. Thus there was 
widely spread abroad a want of reverence for holy things 
and holy persons ; there was among the laity a feverish 
readiness to constitute themselves watchmen over their 
appointed watchmen, which was most injurious hi its effect 
both to the clergy and to themselves. 

These evils were further aggravated by the peculiar 
position of the newly-constituted body with respect to the 
communions round it, which claimed equally the Christian 

* Dr. Hawks' Memorials of Virginia, pp. 350, 351. 
f Life of Bishop White, p. 154. 
7* 



178 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

name, but were strangers to the apostolic form and discip- 
line ; for it was thus subjected, at the same time, to the 
weakness both of infancy and of decrepitude. In all those 
associations and prescriptive rights whereby an hereditary 
Church maintains her hold upon the love and reverence of 
men, she was necessarily wanting. She had no territorial 
existence ; men belonged to her not because they were born 
within her pale, because in the old time holy pastors of 
her communion had stood up there amongst their pagan 
forefathers, and bowed their rugged hearts by the message 
of the everlasting Gospel, and then gathered them into a 
visible fellowship, into which they too, in their turn, had 
been baptised, and to which they owed from infancy an 
hereditary reverence ; nor even because they now joined 
a company of others who had been trained amidst such 
associations ; — but they belonged to her because they chose 
to join her — because she was more reasonable or more 
comely in their eyes than others — because they willed it: and 
to this action of their will, and that of others round them, 
it seemed as if she owed her being : like the constitution 
of their nation, she seemed self-formed through their agency. 
They were not grafted into a pre-existing body — they were 
the frame rs of a new society ; and they felt towards it, 
therefore, ever afterwards, as towards that which they 
might support, remodel, or forsake at will — as their cause 
so long as they maintained it — as that which they had a 
title to conduct as they would. And hence they were 
almost strangers to the reverence and affection of children 
to a spiritual mother : this, under their circumstances, 
could only grow up with time and slowly formed associa- 
tions ; and so for the present, the weakness of infancy was 
on her. 

On the other hand, there was amongst them little of 
the strength of the Church's youth ; for this is founded on 
the ardent affection of fresh converts to the great heart- 
truths of Christ's blessed Gospel. The small company of 
gathered believers in any land where, for the first time, 
the cross of Christ is planted, are a body every one of 
whom is personally convinced of the reality of that com- 
mon spiritual life into which he is now admitted. They 



ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION. 179 

are all well nigh overpowered by the first discovery of their 
true greatness and blessedness in Christ, and their utter 
misery without Him The Church has brought them the 
glorious message of their new creation, and for it they are 
ready, if need be, to go through fire and water ; and so, 
though they may be few in number, they are great in 
strength, for every one of them is a host : each may go 
forth in God's strength and chase a thousand. But this 
could not be the case with this infant communion. She 
was young indeed, but she was shorn of the strength of 
her youth. The message she bore was familiar to the ears 
of those to whom she spoke ; she had to deal with a popu- 
lation calling itself Christian, or, at least, well acquainted 
with all the offers of Christianity; she stood but as a new 
sect amongst sects ;* she seemed to them to be contending 
for nice distinctions, subtle refinements, perhaps doubtful 
claims. This weakened everywhere the effect of her testi- 
mony with others, and it tended to lower her own tone, — 
to lead her to stand upon the defensive, — -to act and speak, 
and often, we may fear, think of herself, as nothing more 
than one amongst the many round her, and of her errand, 
as rather to make proselytes to the dogma of Episcopacy, 
than to win living souls to Christ. 

In these circumstances may doubtless be found reasons 
for the comparatively small effect which, at first, followed 
her implanting in America as the true Church of that 
great people. But beyond this cause, weakness existed in 
her peculiar organization. To enter fully into these, we 
must review shortly the system of ecclesiastical polity 
which was at that time established. This, in outline, 
was as follows : — The union of the whole Church was 
maintained by a "general convention" or assembly "pf 
clerical and lay deputies" elected by each diocese, not to 
exceed four of each order, which met once in three years 

* The language of the preface to her Prayer-book unhappily, 
favored this view, in declaring that the result of the war of inde- 
pendence was to " leave the different denominations of Christians at 
full and equal liberty to model and organize their respective churches 
and forms of worship and discipline, in such manner as they might 
judge most convenient for their future prosperity." 



180 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to pass general canons, and determine any question which 
concerned the common interest of the whole Church ; each 
diocese to have one vote ; all questions to be settled by a 
majority of voices, each order having a negative upon the 
other whenever they should be required to vote by orders. 
Further, a like body of lay deputies and clergy met every 
year in "diocesan convention,"' to order, in subjection to 
the general canons, all which specially concerned that dio- 
cese. One function of the diocesan convention was to 
nominate a " standing committee," which, during the in- 
tervals between its session, carried its decisions into execu- 
tion in the diocese, and, with its fellow-committees, formed, 
in some respects, a standing council of the whole Church. 
"Within the diocese, again, each separate parish had its 
own vestry, which, besides possessing many administrative 
powers, elected its delegates for the " diocesan convention." 
A very little inspection will show the deficiencies of 
all this scheme of polity, which was, in fact, copied, hi the 
main, from the political institutions of the newly-founded 
republic, and rested, therefore, far too much upon the 
choice and self-government of all its members. It is of 
great moment that we trace this out, because it will show 
us the root of many of the infirmities and difficulties by 
which the Church has been beset. We can, indeed, only 
trace the outward side of such evils ; we can inquire into 
defects of organization and errors in systems of polity and 
discipline, and we can do no more ; but in doing this we 
must never overlook the master-truth, that in the presence 
of the blessed Spirit of the Lord is the only life and strength 
of the whole Church. His gracious breath revives its 
love and purity ; His withdrawal leaves it dry and withered. 
The secret history of a multitude of hearts may therefore 
account, in any land, for its welfare or decline, but that 
history is secret as the pathway of the Lord amongst the 
mighty waters. On this, therefore, we cannot enter ; not 
from undervaluing its first importance, but because it is a 
hidden thing, to which we cannot reach. We must be 
contented if we can discover the external causes with 
which these mighty influences are by God's will connected ; 
and this is our intention here. 



ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION. 181 

To begin, then, with the lowest subdivision. The title 
" parish" in America has a widely different meaning from 
that which it bears with us. It is not a certain district of 
a diocese committed by its bishop to the spiritual care of a 
presbyter, who is to regard all within it as his charge, for 
whom he is to care now, and to give account hereafter, 
" whether they will hear or whether they will forbear ;" it 
was merely a set of persons who associated themselves to- 
gether and agreed to act and worship together in a certain 
place, and under certain rules, because they preferred the 
episcopal form to any other. Their very corporate exis- 
tence was the consequence of their own choice and will, 
not the result of care taken for them ; and this principle 
was present every where. After a time these men deter- 
mined upon building a church ; they built it, and divided 
its area into pews, which they took to themselves ; so that 
the poor were from the first excluded, because they could 
not pay their share towards the expenses of the building, 
which now belonged to the body corporate in whose deci- 
sion it originated. Here was the first grievous fault: "to 
the poor the gospel was" not " preached." The next was 
of a different kind, but no less real. The body thus formed 
applied to the convention of the diocese in which it was 
situated for admission as a part of that diocese ; it obtained 
from the legislature the privileges of a body corporate, and 
it began to exercise its rights. Accordingly, in Easter 
week of every year, all the holders of the pews met to- 
gether to elect by ballot a vestry, which might consist of 
any number not exceeding ten. From this number two 
wardens were appointed, one by the clergyman* and one 
by the vestry. The vestry being thus organised, elected 
out of their own body a treasurer, secretary, and delegates 
to the diocesan convention. 

To this vestry the management of all the affairs of the 
parish was committed, and this lay body not only conducted 
its pecuniary concerns, but settled the payment of the min- 
ister, " engaged the services of a clergyman in cases of a 

* In the greater number of cases the wardens are both appoint- 
ed by the vestry. 



182 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

vacancy ;" # and if it deemed it right, provided also an as- 
sistant minister. Thus, by this system, not only was the 
pastor dependent on the offerings of his flock, bat he de- 
rived his authority from them, and to them he was respon- 
sible. They at first nominated him to his post, and after- 
wards, through the vestry, in a great measure controlled 
his conduct. The practical evils which flowed from this 
unsound principle need scarcely be pointed out. The course 
of this history will require us to notice hereafter some strik- 
ing instances in which the Episcopal clergy, as a body, 
have not dared to raise an open testimony against national 
corruption. Such must be too often the result of arrange- 
ments such as these. The very notion of the Christian 
ministry presupposes in the witness for his Lord entire in- 
dependence of those to whom he is sent. He must be ready 
to withstand and to rebuke evil principles and evil prac- 
tices wherever they are found ; and if he be not, it is soon 
discovered that the salt of the world hath lost its savor. 
For this end it was, that since the power of working mi- 
racles has been withdrawn, the whole system of the Church 
has sought to provide for the independence of those who 
were to be, by the necessity of their office, bold rebukers 
of sin, and, if need be, patient sufferers for the truth. The 
wisdom with which it had secured this end, by making the 
clergy dependent only on itself, was ono great secret of 
the power and prevalence of papal Rome. Amongst our- 
selves the same end has been greatly promoted by the ex- 
istence of an endowed national establishment. For, though 
the spirit which fills the heart of confessors and martyrs is 
of far too high and noble a character to be directly affected 
by such an influence, yet in the long run the temper of 
any large body of men will be surely, though unconsciously, 
depressed or raised by the dependence or independence of 
the position which they occupy. 

In America, all things tend to make the clergy keenly 
feel their want of independence. So far does this extend, 
that it can hardly fail to act injuriously upon their own 
estimate of their spiritual position. It is hardly to be ex- 

* The American expression. Caswall's American Church, p. 66. 



PARISH AND DIOCESE. 183 

pec ted that men who are thus taught from the first to view 
themselves merely as the selected and paid agents of a 
lay board can, as a body, fully realize their high character 
as the fearless witnesses for Christ's truth in the face of an 
evil generation. Noble exceptions, indeed, there have been 
among the western clergy — Christian heroes, who have 
risen above the weakening influence of the system under 
which they live ; but of that system the tendency is no less 
certain. It is to make the pastor wholly dependent upon 
those to whom he ministers. 

Next to the parish comes the diocese, which consists of 
all the parishes within any one state, which, having or- 
ganised themselves according to the rules of the general 
convention, have been admitted into union with it. Here, 
again, the same faulty principle was present, A " dio- 
cese/ 5 in the language of the Church, has ever meant 
a certain portion of Christ's flock committed to the spe- 
cial charge of one chief pastor, who fills for it the office 
which our Lord entrusted to His first apostles. But in 
America a diocese meant nothing more than a federal com- 
monwealth of " parishes," associated on certain prescribed 
conditions with each other and the general convention. So 
far from dependence on one bishop defining its character 
and marking its limits, it might, and often must,* for years, 
by the general canons of the Church, have no bishop at 
all. For, while any number of parishes in any state were 
invited by the constitution to form themselves into a " dio- 
cese," it was specially enjoined! that they should not have 
the right of electing a bishop until six presbyters had been 
duly settled within that state, in charge of six duly organ- 
ised parishes, for the space of one year. The reason of 
this rule is plain. "Without it, any ambitious presbyter 
who could gather one or two supporters, might have " or- 
ganised a diocese" in some new state, and presented him- 
self for consecration as its elected bishop. But the necessity 
of such a rule is a striking instance of the evil which re- 
sulted from this new principle of self-creation ; by which, 

* This necessity has since been happily removed, as will appear 
hereafter. 

f By the second canon of the Church. 



184 AMERICAN CHUHCH. 

like some mere commercial association aiming* at pecuni- 
ary profits, the members of the Church formed themselves 
at will into a body corporate, to act together by mutual 
agreement, without their appointed head. 

The practice of earlier times, indeed, and the necessities 
of this, would have allowed, if need be, any scattered pres- 
byters to act, singly or together, on their own com- 
mission, waiting for and expecting the time, when the 
rulers of the Church should crown their labors, by sending 
forth one chief witness more, to gather them together into 
a visible unity. But this would have been wholly a dif- 
ferent arrangement from that, which directed the laity or 
clergy to constitute themselves an organised diocese, though 
they remained for years without a bishop. 

The evils of this state of things are well expressed by 
a living bishop of America :* — " If due perpetuation of the 
Church, and chief authority, and the protection of God's 
promise, appertain to bishops as successors of the apostles 
of the Lord, how can we encourage, so far as we have 
rightful influence, the extension, or even the existence of 
the Church without a bishop? If it be 'evident,' as we 
declare,! ' to all men diligently reading holy scripture and 
ancient authors, that from the apostles' time there have 
been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, bishops, 
priests, and deacons,' by what warrant can we withhold 
from any portion of the Saviour's family the chiefest of the 
three ? If it be sound and true in practice, as it is cer- 
tainly of primitive authority, ' not to do any thing without 
the bishop, '$ upon what principle is it that we permit the 
organisation of dioceses, yet, until they have a certain num- 
ber of duly organised parishes and duly settled presbyters, 
compel them to remain without a bishop '?" 

One evident effect of this rule was, to afford tempta- 
tions to all sorts of subterfuges through which a state could 
be made to seem possessed of the number of parishes and 

* George "Washington Doane, D. D., bishop of the diocese of 
New Jersey, in a sermon preached at Philadelphia, September 25, 
1833 

f Preface to the Ordinal. 

% See the Epistles of Ignatius, the disciple of St. John. 



DIOCESE AND BISHOPS. 185 

pastors to which was annexed the exercise of this right. 
Another and a greater evil belonging to this rule was the 
v/eakness with which it infected all the aggressive acts of 
the Church upon those whom she should conquer to save. 
In the outskirts and border-land of Christendom the spirit- 
ual struggle is always most severe. There, where the old 
standard can be carried forward only by hard fighting, is 
the greatest need of those true champions who are ready to 
spend their breath and shed their blood in the holy cause. 
There is ever the greatest need of disciplined ranks, of 
completeness of authority, of ready obedience, of concentred 
command, of our Master's promised presence ; there, more 
than any where beside, must the successors of the twelve 
be found ready to do constantly apostle's works. Nothing, 
therefore, could be more disheartening than the lacking 
this secret of strength exactly where that strength was 
most required. 

Again, another evil resulted from this rule. It fostered 
the very spirit of self-will and independence from which it 
sprang ; for, by allowing the organisation of a diocese with- 
out a bishop, it led practically to the undervaluing of the 
office of a bishop, to its being esteemed an ornamental part 
of the Church machinery, and not as the power of govern- 
ment and the instrument of a visible unity. The ' ; conven- 
tion," and not the episcopate became really the ruling 
power. That is, while called Episcopal, the Church was, 
in fact, in great measure Presbyterian. 

There was much in the constitution of the diocesan 
" convention" to increase this evil. It was a synod, of which 
laymen, many of whom were not even communicants, formed 
the greater part.f Each parish sent one,two,or three delegates 
to this convention ; and they passed canons, administered the 
discipline of the diocese, decided on the alteration of creeds, 
liturgies, and articles, elected a bishop, and even held that 
when appointed he would be " amenable to" them.f Of a 

* There is nothing to prevent even an unbaptised man re- 
presenting the Church in general convention; and it is too cer- 
tain that such men have actually been found amongst the dele- 
gates. 

t Canons of the Church in Virginia. 



186 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

like cliaracter was the constitution of the standing commit- 
tee, which commonly consisted of laymen and clergy, in 
equal numbers.^ This, which was elected by a diocesan 
convention, was, till the next assembled, the governing 
body of the diocese. 

A few extracts from the minutes of one of the Virginian 
conventions will show the working of this system in detail. 
They are taken from the journal of May, 1790,t four 
months before the consecration of the first bishop of that 
diocese. 

On Wednesday, May 5 111, a sufficient number of clergy- 
men and lay deputies to form a convention having met 
according to appointment, the Rev. T. Madison, D. D., was 
unanimously elected president. After this they elected a 
secretary and a committee to examine into the certificates 
of the appointments of sitting members, and adjourned till 
two p. m.j to receive the report of this committee, This 
having been received, and the list of actual members of 
convention ascertained, they then adjourned until the mor- 
row. 

On Thursday, May 6th, the proceedings opened with 
prayers and a sermon ; after which, amongst other things, 
it was " resolved, that this convention will to-morrow re- 
solve itself into a committee of the whole convention, on 
the state of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; that this 
convention will, to-morrow, proceed to the nomination of a 
bishop of the Episcopal Church in Virginia ; that a com- 
mittee be appointed to amend the canons which respect 
the trial of offending clergymen." This committee was 
composed of five laymen and five clergymen. 

On the following day the convention proceeded by bal- 
lot to the nomination of a bishop, when it was found that 
the numbers given were — for the He v. James Madison, 
46 ; for the Rev. Samuel Shield, 9 — a majority, therefore, 
of the whole convention was in favor of Dr. Madison, and 

* " In Pennsylvania it consists of fire clergymen and as many 
laymen. In Ohio three of each order are elected ; in Tenessee two of 
each." Caswall's American Church, p. 74 

f Journals of Virginian Conventions. Appendix to Dr. Hawks's 
Memorials, p. 31, &c. 



VIRGINIAN CONVENTION 187 

it was accordingly resolved that lie should be nominated 
for consecration as their bishop. 

The convention then appointed five clergymen to " visit" 
the different districts of the province ; and agreed to recom- 
mend any bishop to whom Mr. Stephen Johnson might 
apply for ordination, to dispense in his case with the know- 
ledge of the Greek and Latin languages, required by the 
seventh general canon of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in America. After transacting some of the temporal busi- 
ness of the diocese, the convention adjourned. At their 
meeting on the following day, which ended the synod, be- 
sides other business, they received from the committee some 
new canons respecting the trial of offending clergymen, 
which were read and finally adopted, and agreed to a ge- 
neral "ordinance for regulating the appointment of vestries 
and trustees, and for other purposes." Some extracts irom 
these "canons" and this "ordinance" will show the nature 
of the questions decided by this convention, in which there 
were twenty-seven clergymen to thirty-three lay deputies. 
" Be it ordained," says the ordinance, " that future conven- 
tions shall consist of two deputies from each parish, of 
whom the minister shall be one, if there be a minister, the 
other a layman, to be annually chosen by the vestry, who 
shall also choose another, where there is no minister in the 
parish," — a minister being no more essential to a parish 
than a bishop to a diocese. 

" Convention shall regulate all the religious concerns of 
the Church, its doctrines, discipline, and worship, and 
institute such rules and regulations as they may judge ne- 
cessary for the good government thereof, and the same 
revoke and alter at their pleasure." 

To the same purport speak the canons. "All ques- 
tions, whether they relate to the order, government, disci- 
pline, doctrine, or worship of this Church, shall be deter- 
mined by a majority of votes." "The clergy of several 
neighboring parishes shall assemble in presbytery annually, 
at some convenient place in the district. One in each dis- 
trict shall be appointed by the convention to preside at 
their meetings, with the title of visitor ; who shall annually 
visit each parish in his district — shall attend to and inspect 



188 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the morals and conduct of the clergy — shall admonish and 
reprove privately those clergymen who are negligent or act 
in an unbecoming manner — and shall report yearly to the 
bishop, if there be one, or if there be no bishop, to the next 
convention, the state of each parish in his district." Other 
canons carried these principles still further. " Bishops," 
says canon 25, "shall be amenable to the convention, who 
shall be a court to try them, from which there shall be no 
appeal ;" and (canon 27) " on a bishop's being convicted 
of offences, he shall be reproved, suspended, or dismissed, 
at the discretion of the court." 

Of the same character are some of the rules for the 
lower orders in the ■ ministry. "No minister," says the 
13th, "shall hereafter be received into any parish within 
this commonwealth till he shall have entered into a con- 
tract in writing ... by which it shall be stipulated . . . 
that he holds the appointment subject to removal upon 
the determination of the convention of this state." And 
the 28th canon, one of those adopted at this time, consti- 
tutes the chairman and three-fourths of the standing com- 
mittee (a lay body) a court to try all clergymen accused 
of offences, giving them the power of "passing such a sen- 
tence as the majority shall think deserved, which shall be 
either reproof, dismission, or degradation." The tendency 
of such a set of rules is plain. They do not merely secure 
to the laity that share of power which, in the best times, 
belonged to them, but they give to the convention the 
whole government ; and confer upon a synod of deputies, 
clerical and lay, the office of degrading presbyters and 
bishops — of taking, that is, from them, what it had no 
authority to give or to remove. 

In the organization of the general convention the same 
evils may be found. Some, indeed, there were, and 
amongst them Bishop Seabury, who contended that lay- 
men should not sit at all in synods of the Church. But 
for this there seems to be undoubted warrant. From the 
intimations of the Acts of the Apostles, we can hardly 
doubt that, in some way or other, the laity took part in 
the disscussions of the primitive Church. It is as plain 
that they made up the body in which dwelt the Holy 



LAY MEMBERS OP CONVENTION. 189 

Ghost, as that the power of discipline and rule was vested 
in the hands of the apostles. The general history of the 
Church in the succeeding age suggests, that then also the 
believing people ratified with their expressed consent the 
decisions of the earliest synods. That such was the custom 
in our own land is clear from plain historical records. It 
is proved by the earliest remains of our annals, that the 
bishops presided over ecclesiastical councils in England, 
and, with a vast attendance of the people, settled all mat- 
ters of religion against heresies, 

After the subjugation of this island by the Saxons, 
their kings, with the chiefs and bishops, held councils, in 
which they decided all which concerned the safety of the 
Church and kingdom ; and to maintain their peace and 
discipline, enacted laws, with the sanction both of the 
laity and prelates. Further, if at any time canons were 
passed in a merely ecclesiastical synod, they were not 
binding on the body of the clergy until they had received 
the sanction of the monarch, as the representative of the 
laity ; for no decrees of ecclesiastical councils possessed the 
character of public enactments until thus sanctioned by 
the king's authority.^ 

Both in Scotland and England, in the ninth, tenth, 
and eleventh centuries, councils were held for settling both 
civil and ecclesiastical affairs, in which it is plain, from 
their signatures, that kings and great men of the laity sat 
with and even outweighed the bishops. f 

On this point our ancient records cannot be mistaken. 
" Let the bishop and the senator," say the laws of Edgar 
(about a.d. 950,) " be present at the provincial synod, and 
afterwards let them teach divine and human laws. "J 

" King Eadmund," says the code of Anglo-Saxon laws, 
" assembled a great synod at London-byrig, as well of 
ecclesiastical as secular degree, during the holy Easter- 
tide. There was Odda, archbishop, and Wolfstan, arch- 
bishop, and many other bishops, deeply thinking of their 
souls' condition and of those who were subject to them."§ 

* Wilkins, Concilia, vol. vi. p. viii. f Ibid. p. xxvii. 

\ Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicse, pp. 78, 79. 
§ Anglo-Saxon Laws, p. 92. 



190 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" In the reign of the most bountiful "Wihtred, king of 
the Kentish men, there was assembled a convention of the 
great men in council : there was Birhtwald, Archbishop 
of Britain, and the forenamed king ; and the ecclesiastics 
of the province of every degree spoke in union with the 
subject people."^ 

So speak the laws of King Alfred. " After this it hap- 
pened that many nations received the faith of Christ,! and 
that many synods were assembled throughout all the 
earth ; and also among the English race after they had 
received the faith of Christ, of holy bishops, and also of 
other exalted witan." And even in later times, when the 
clergy and laity no longer sat together, the decisions of 
the synod were ratified by the assent of the assembled 
laity. 

It is not, therefore, to the presence or votes of the laity 
in the American convention that objection can be made. 
In this respect the constitution of the synod did but follow 
primitive examples. But there were other points for 
which no such warrant can be found. The Episcopal 
character was not distinctly marked in its organization. 
The veto of the bishops is as essential to the complete- 
ness of the system as the possession of their due share 
of power by the believing laity : and this was withheld 
from the bishops in America ; the agreement of four-fifths 
of the lower house forced upon them any measures approved 
by the majority. 

If Episcopacy be indeed of Christ's appointment, such 
infractions on its principles must have weakened this infant 
Church ; and that it did so, there is ample proof. To 
these various errors admitted into its constitution we may 
doubtless trace much of the slow and feeble progress of the 
body. Conventions never, even in America, have com- 
manded the respect which has always waited on the per- 
sonal rule of a holy and devoted bishop. Hence sprung 
" angry contentions" in diocesan meetings, in which "both 
sides charged their adversaries with unholy motives, and 

* Anglo-Saxon Laws, p. 14 : a.d. 695. 
f About 880 : p. 23. 



CHURCH'S DIFFICULTIES IN AMERICA. 191 

disingenuous, unchristian conduct."^ To such a pitch did 
these conflicts sometimes rise, that we find them prevent- 
ing the possibility of the election of a bishop from the fierce 
opposition of contending factions. From this course, also, 
there was diffused on all sides amongst Churchmen a low 
estimate of God's gifts, and of the powers of His spiritual 
kingdom. Hence sprung such propositions as, "that the 
canons should be so modified as to give rectors and vestries 
the power of admitting to the pulpits of the churches 
clergymen of other denominations ;"t hence wanton altera- 
tions in the creeds and liturgy ; hence a feeble and falter- 
ing tone, which soon infected thought and action, first 
amongst the clergy, and then amongst the laity, and helped 
on the impression, at one time " common in the south, that 
. the Church was cold and lifeless, and indifferent to the 
religion of the heart."$ 

But even as we remark these errors in the early or- 
ganization of this now independent body, we must bear in 
mind to whom belongs the real fault implied in their adop- 
tion. It was the Church and nation of England which 
had accustomed these our western sons to reverse the an- 
cient rule, and " do everything in the Church without the 
bishop." It was our past neglect which left them now to 
seek their principles, and at the same time to set up the 
very framework of their body spiritual. 

Nor should their peculiar difficulties be overlooked. 
The American revolution not only shook the Church to its 
base, but left the minds of the people disinclined to episco- 
pacy, merely because it was the form of English religion. 
Even Churchmen were infected with this feeling. They 
had known nothing of bishops except the name ; and they 
had always associated their office with the customs and 
usages of the mother country. Episcopacy was commonly 
supposed to be of necessity allied to monarchy ; and hence 
in republican America the whole tide of men's strongest 
passions set full against it. Here, then, was a great temp- 
tation to the framers of the new ecclesiestical constitution, 



* Dr. Hawks's Maryland, p. 389. f ^d- P- 891 - 

% Ibid. p. 376. 



192 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to mingle, as far as possible, the ruling principle of self-go- 
vernment with the fabric of the episcopal communion. 
They needed, undoubtedly, to be reminded, that " the rights 
of the Christian Church arise, not from nature or compact, 
but from the institution of Christ ; and that we ought not 
to alter them, but to receive and maintain them as the 
holy apostles left them. The government, sacraments, 
faith, and doctrine of the Church are fixed and settled. We 
have a right to examine what they are, but we must take 
them as they are."^ They were besides almost forced to 
give their laymen too large a share of spiritual government, 
for they had no bishops to rule over them. 

While, therefore, we regret the compromise, and see 
too clearly the evils to which it has given birth, we must 
rejoice that still more of ancient truth was not lost in those 
perilous times ; and we hail with peculiar pleasure many 
after-modifications of injurious practices, and many 
gradual returns to higher and more primitive principles. 
The Churchmen of America had amongst them the true 
principle of life, and the true law for its development ; 
and year by year they have cast off some cause of weak- 
ness, and, through God's good guidance, carried on the 
mighty work to which. His grace has called them. 

* Letter of Bishop Seabury to Dr. "White. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FROM 1801, TO 1811-12. 

Death and character of Bishop Seabury — Bishop White — Bishop 
Provoost — His character — Resigns the episcopal jurisdiction — do- 
mination and consecration of Bishop Moore — His character — Im- 
provement of the state of the Church — Maryland — Bishop Clag- 
gett — Party spirit — Bishop Claggett applies for a Suffragan — 
Division of convention in 1812 — Method of electing a bishop — The 
laity negative the nomination of the clergy — Convention of 1813 
— No attempt at an election made — Dr. Kemp elected suffragan 
in 1814 — Consequent party feuds — Bishop Claggett's death — 
Dr. Kemp succeeds — His death — Renewed contests as to the Epis- 
copate — Bishop Stone elected — Troubles on his death— The see 
vacant — State of Delaware — ISTo bishop — Application to Mary- 
laud — Refused — Decay of the Church there — And iu Virginia — 
Issue of the long struggle with the Auabaptists and others — The 
glebes confiscated — Prostration of the Church. 

At the opening of the new century seven bishops presided 
in America over their several sees. Of these, three were 
of European and four of American consecration. The first 
of the four fathers of the western episcopate had been al- 
ready, -as we have seen, gathered to his rest. Bishop Sea- 
bury died in 1796. His death w r as a heavy loss to his in- 
fant communion ; yet he had lived long enough to leave a 
marked impress of his character upon its institutions. His 
influence was most important whilst the foundations of the 
ecclesiastical fabric were being laid. For he was a clear- 
sighted man, of a bold spirit, and better acquainted than 
any of his coadjutors with those guiding principles which 
were then especially required. His own bias, indeed, was 
to extremes in the very opposite direction from that to which 
their inclination led them. Trained amidst the New-Eng- 
land sects, he had early learned to value the distinctive 
features of his own communion : and receiving consecra- 
9 



194 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tion from the Scotch bishops, the affections of his heart 
opened freely towards them, and drew the whole bent of 
his mind towards their forms and practices. Had it been 
left to him alone to form the temper and mould the insti- 
tutions of the western Church, there would have been little 
hope of its ever embracing the whole of the jealous popula- 
tion of that wide republic. But hi3 views were a whole- 
some check upon those with whom he had to act. Of these, 
Bishop Madison had been bred a lawyer in the worst days 
of Virginian laxity. He was an elegant scholar, a good 
president of a college, and a mild and courteous gentleman; 
but he had none of the Christian learning and little of the 
untiring energy in action which his difficult position ren- 
dered needful. Bishop White, mild, meek, and concilia- 
tory, inclined always to those councils which bore most 
faintly the stamp of his own communion, and fulfilling, 
through these qualities, a most important part in the com- 
mon work, was indisposed by character and temper from 
taking resolutely the position which the times required. 
From that which he was sure was right, nothing indeed 
could move him ; but he was naturally over-tolerant of all 
opinions. 

These very qualities made him a most useful coadjutor 
to the Bishop of Connecticut. For, as it was his great 
endeavor to secure unanimity of action, he was ready tc 
take part in many things to winch he was himself indiffer- 
ent, when he saw his brother's earnestness concerning 
them. The same easy temper as to things he judged in- 
different, which would have led him, for the sake of peace, 
to concede to the most opposite objections what ought not 
to be yielded, now made him take the stricter side in mat- 
ters which he saw would not be given up by Bishop Sea- 
bury. On this principle he voted for reinserting in the 
liturgy the Athanasian Creed, whilst he scrupled not to 
say that he would never use it ; and agreed to place in the 
Communion-office the prayers of invocation and oblation, 
though he himself had never regretted their omission. His 
temper hi these things was of the more importance from the 
peculiar character of Bishop Provoost. He was not a man 
to whom the destinies of an infant Church could with 



BISHOP PROVOOST. 195 

safety be committed. The whole tone of his theological 
views was cold and harsh ; and in Church principles he 
was remarkably deficient. Before the revolutionary war 
he was assistant-minister of Trinity Church, New- York, 
but had retired in 1770 from the work, and lived for four- 
teen years on a small farm in Dutchess county.* To this 
step he was led in part by his violent political feelings, 
which made him unwilling to hold any preferment under 
British influence, and in part by the extreme unpopularity 
of his ministry. It was urged commonly against him that 
he brought forward with but little prominence those pe- 
culiar features of the Christian dispensation which are usu- 
ally distinguished as the doctrines of grace. There seems 
to have been too much foundation for the charge. The 
language of his own defence is by no means satisfactory. 
He was accused, he says, of endeavoring to sap the foun- 
dations of Christianity, because he made a point of preach- 
ing the doctrines of morality, guarding his flock at the same 
time against " placing such an unbounded reliance on the 
merits of Christ as to think their own endeavors quite un- 
necessary, and not in the least available to salvation." 
This language savors of a most dangerous school, and im- 
plies no small indistinctness as to Christian truth. Mo- 
rality, indeed, in its highest sense, the Christian teacher 
must always enforce, and he must lead men to be most 
strenuous in " their own endeavors" after salvation, 
11 working" it " out with fear and trembling ;" but not as 
if (which this mode of speech implies) there were some 
opposition between the fullest statement of Christian doc- 
trines and the enforcement of morality : or between la- 
boring heartily themselves, and " placing an unbounded 
reliance on the merits of Christ." 

He was elected for consecration as the first Bishop of 
New- York, chiefly, as it seems, because his known demo- 
cratic opinions were likely to make it an unsuspected 
and even popular choice. But zealous Christian men in 
different parts viewed the appointment with unfeigned sor- 
row, fearing that he was inclined to opinions of little less 

* Life of Bishop Hobart by M' Vickar, p. 296. 



196 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

than a Socinian character. His conduct during his epis- 
copate did not materially lessen these impressions to his dis- 
advantage. It could not be denied that he was to a great 
extent, cold and indistinct in doctrine, distant and reserved 
in personal bearing, and indolent and inactive in his work. 
Against Bishop Seabury, whose opinions and character 
were ine very respect most unlike his own, he was strongly 
prejudiced, and long denied the validity of his consecra- 
tion, even though in this he stood almost alone amongst 
his own clergy, and when the neighboring states had 
received as pastors those whom his eastern brother had 
ordained. Most happily for the infant Church, the mild 
urbanity of Bishop White checked this discord and prevented 
the threatened separation ; and from this time, though there 
was little sympathy of feeling, yet they acted in concert 
till the death of Bishop Seabury in 1786. Bishop Pro- 
voost's own public life lasted little longer. In September 
1800 he resigned the incumbency of Trinity church ; and 
in the following year he called together the diocesan con- 
vention, and resigned to it his episcopal jurisdiction. Dif- 
ferent causes led him to this step. He had little sense of 
the spiritual greatness of his charge, no burning ardor in ful- 
filling it ; its duties pressed heavily upon an inactive tem- 
perament ; he had long withdrawn himself from all but 
those which he could not escape ; and the loss of his wife 
in 1799, and his son in 1800, induced him at once to re- 
tire from the discharge of an office which he felt to be an 
irksome burden rather than a blessing. 

His resignation led to anxious debates in the general 
convention, and the house of bishops refused to allow what 
they thought might be an unseemly and inconvenient pre- 
cedent. They acted, however, so far upon it, that they 
agreed to consecrate Dr. Benjamin Moore as his assistant 
now, and his successor at his death. Much good resulted 
from this choice. Bishop Moore was a man of tender gen- 
tleness of character ; and the vigor and determination of 
his successor would probably have suited the temper of 
events less than his winning mildness. Under the rule of 
his predecessor all had been dormant, if not apathetic. Of 
this lethargic character had been his temper who should 



BISHOP CLAGGETT. 197 

have been the spring of life and energy in others. Bare 
toleration seemed to Bishop Provoost all that could be hoped 
for by a body branded with the stigma of British descent. 
They who invite suspicion and contempt are seldom slow 
in meeting with them. So it was now : common opinion 
. looked suspiciously upon the Church, and the sense of this 
oppressed its members. Neither the clergy nor the laity 
ever rose under him to any sense of the importance of their 
position. The apostolic gentleness of Bishop Moore brooded 
with a loving energy over the scattered and disheartened 
flock, and prepared the way for a better state of things. 
During the ten years of his episcopate, though there was 
little evident increase, there was a gradual upgrowth of 
sounder principles within his diocese. 

On no other side was there the same amount of promise. 
Maryland^ was at this time, and until 1816, under the 
charge of Bishop Claggett, a mild and courteous ruler, and 
a zealous Christian minister ; but wanting somewhat of 
that habitual firmness which was needful to give tone to 
his episcopate. His flock, as we have seen,t was in a lan- 
guishing condition ; it was, moreover, sorely harrassed by 
internal disputes ; parties ran high within it, and it seemed 
as if the unity of the spirit had departed from the land. 
Bishop Claggett could scarcely repress the feuds which 
were rife among his clergy ; and as soon as opportunity al- 
lowed, they broke out into visible dissensions. 

The opportunity too soon occurred. For twenty years 
Bishop Claggett had been overburthened by the united 
weight of those cares which belong to a laborious parish 
priest and those which press upon a faithful bishop. Such 
an incongruous union, which breaks down prematurely 
the best men, is almost universal in America. While 
the fear of exalting the class of prelates has led some con- 
ventions (that, for instance, of Virginia) to make the reten- 
tion of a parish-cure imperative upon a bishop, the need of 
securing a certain income to support the episcopate has 
made this the general custom. " Episcopal funds," to 

* From Dr. Hawks's Memorials, Maryland, Preface, 
f P. 176. 



198 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

meet this want, have, indeed, often been proposed ; but, 
except in the diocese of New York, they have never met 
with full success ; and thus they on whom is laid the 
charge of government and the daily "care of all the 
churches," are obliged, at the same time, to serve the most 
laborious cures in order to secure themselves a necessary 
income. 

Worn out by such labors, yet unwilling wholly to desert 
his post, Bishop Claggett, after twenty years of service, ap- 
plied, in 1812, for a suffragan to share his toils. The right 
of electing a bishop is lodged by the constitution of the Ame- 
rican Church in the diocesan convention ; their choice is 
submitted to the general convention, if it be the year of its 
session, and if approved by it, is acted on by the bishops. 
In the recesses of the general convention, a majority of the 
" standing committees" of all the dioceses in union must 
approve of the choice before the bishops consecrate. By the 
rule of election in the state of Maryland, a vote by ballot of 
two-thirds of the clergy in session nominates the clergyman 
to fill the vacant see : this nomination then becomes the sub- 
ject of a ballot among the lay deputies ; and if two-thirds of 
them approve of it, the bishop elect is nominated to the pre- 
sident of the house of bishops, who collects the opinions 
either of that body or of the standing committees of the 
union. 

When Bishop Claggett's message reached the diocesan 
convention, they proceeded to a ballot, and Dr. Kemp w r as 
nominated for the office. He was a native of Scotland, born 
of pious parents attached to the Presbyterian kirk. What 
first changed his religious views is now entirelv unknown. 
In his youth the Episcopal oommunion was oppressed in 
Scotland by the severest penal laws ; and when he was first 
permitted to attend its services, he was wont to be led blind- 
fold to the house of prayer, lest he should afterwards prove 
a traitor, and expose his fellow-worshippers to the severe 
enactments of a persecuting code. Probably this attach- 
ment to the Church led to his emigration to America. 
Here he lived for some years as private tutor in a respect- 
able family of Maryland ; in 1789 he was ordained by Bishop 
White both deacon and priest ; and having been the year 



bishop eemf's election, 199 

before chosen to the associate rectorship of St. Paul's, Balti- 
more, was now, by a majority of clerical suffrages, nomi- 
nated as assistant bishop to Dr. Claggett. This nomina- 
tion, however, was negatived by the lay delegates, and the 
convention adjourned before any choice was made. At the 
convention of the following year the equal strength of the 
two parties prevented all attempts to make a nomination ; 
and when, in 1814, Dr. Kemp's election was carried by a 
constitutional majority, the defeated party charged his 
friends with the grossest fraud, and stirred up a bitter and 
lasting opposition to the elected suffragan. He, however, 
made good his ground. The house of bishops rejected a 
protest laid before them by his enemies ; and in the eastern 
coast of the diocese of Maryland, which was specially com- 
mitted to him, his temper and his zeal soon gamed him 
the esteem of all good men. 

Yet the embers of ill-will which had been stirred up 
in this contest broke out afresh into a flame at every op- 
portunity. A party in the Church besought Dr. Provoost, 
the retired bishop of New- York, to consecrate one of their 
number in opposition to Bishop Kemp ; and the strife was 
not allayed till it had led to the suspension of the chief op- 
ponent of the choice ; and even then it only slept. Bishop 
Kemp, indeed, succeeded without question to the see on 
Dr. Claggett's death; but when he in turn was, in 1827,^ 
gathered to his fathers, the strife was renewed. In the 
convention of the following year three fruitless attempts to 
nominate a bishop prolonged the strife ; five such followed 
in the convention of 1829. In 1830, a compromise between 
the hostile parties seated Dr. Stone upon the bishop's seat, 
which for full seven years he occupied with a meek quiet- 
ness which might have stilled the spirit of division ; but 
the meeting of convention shortly after his death, soon 
showed that it was unallayed. The synod was opened 
with a most touching address, prepared for delivery by 
Bishop Stone; but now, in consequence of his decease, 
read by another. From its words of peace the convention 

* Bishop Kemp's death was sudden and violent, owing to the 
overturning of the carriage in which he was returning from the gene- 
ral convention. 



200 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

passed to bitterness and strife. Each party put its candi- 
date in nomination ; and though the two principals agreed 
in recommending a third party for the office, their adher- 
ents would permit no compromise. After twenty fruitless 
ballotings, a bishop was still unappointed. The see was 
declined by one presbyter of New- York (Dr. Eastburn), 
and one missionary bishop (Dr. Kemper), and in 183S was 
still untenanted. 

In all this narrative we seem scarcely to be reading the 
annals of that Church which glories in possessing the 
apostles' " doctrine and fellowship. 7 ' Rather do we seem 
engaged with the perverse wr anglings of the adherents of 
some worldly sect. But it is, in fact, a striking comment 
on that intertwining of lower principles with the single 
thread of apostolic order which weakened at so many points 
the Western Church. It was the result of allowing men 
to organise themselves, and so become and remain a head- 
less diocese ; instead of sending the Church to them as the 
constituted ordinance of God. 

While there was this distempered life in Maryland, in 
the neighboring state of Delaware there was almost the 
apathy of death. This was one of those American ano- 
malies — a diocese without a bishop. It seems to have 
been constituted a diocese in 1785 ; but the episcopal chair 
had never yet been filled. The cause of this does not ap- 
pear ; but it was probably the want of funds to support 
the office. In 1803, Delaware proposed to the Maryland 
convention, that the eastern shore of that state should with 
itself constitute a new diocese. The application was de- 
clined ; and with it seem to have ended all their efforts for 
this object. Religion was at the lowest ebb. Before the 
Revolution, matters had been widely different. Numer- 
ous congregations had been wont, throughout that district, to 
worship in goodly churches their fathers' God. Of these 
buildings many have perished utterly ; many are still in 
ruins. "The traveller," says Dr. Hawks, * "in going 
down the line that separates Delaware from Maryland, 
might at a recent period have seen within a few miles of 

* Memorials of Maryland, p. 354. 



CHURCHES IN RUIN. 201 

that line the tottering remains of five churches, and the 
spots on which had stood three or four others. There are 
few things more calculated to touch the soul of a pious 
Churchman than to journey over those southern states, and 
to mark the crumbling remains of ruined temples that at- 
test the piety of our forefathers. More than once have we 
paused in our travel to step aside, and stand alone within 
the roofless and, perchance, shattered walls of some house 
of God that caught our eye and lured us from the road. 
There is a sermon in the very stillness of the quiet air 
around the hallowed spot, as one sits down on some half- 
sunken tombstone, and, in the calm loveliness of one of 
those bright and beautiful days that belong to a southern 
clime, calls up the scene of former times, and nils that 
forsaken church with the worshippers of a buried genera- 
tion." 

The state of things in Delaware was desolate indeed. 
The whole peninsula on which it stands, — which includes 
the state of Delaware, the east shore of Maryland, and two 
counties of Virginia, — contained, at the time of making this 
request, but nineteen clergymen. In 1827 they had dwin- 
dled to fifteen ; and there was still almost forty churches 
in a fit state for worship, surviving the wreck of time to 
testify against a love which had grown cold, and a candle- 
stick already well removed from its place, It is surely 
worth notice, that the districts in which Church principles 
had long been lowest were those in which piety the soon- 
est flagged. So it was in Maryland, and so it was in the 
neighboring diocese of Virginia. From this state had come 
the strongest opposition to the distinctive features of the 
Church. It was a Virginian deputy who proposed to omit 
the first four petitions of the Litany ; it was Virginia which 
resisted the rubric allowing the clergy to expel unfit com- 
municants ; it was Virginia which sent as lay deputy to 
the general convention a priest who had abandoned his 
orders ; Virginia headed the opposition to the Athanasian 
Creed ; directed her representative, by an unanimous vote, 
to express " the highest disapprobation" of the proposed 
allowance of a negative to the house of bishops ; and de- 
clared her bishops " amenable to their conventions ;" it was 
9* 



202 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

in Virginia that clergymen were found who began to sub- 
stitute extemporaneous prayer for the appointed Litany ;* 
it was in Virginia, also, that deadness to all spiritual things 
was the most perceptible. One name amongst her clergy 
is still fresh in the grateful remembrance of the few sur- 
viving members of his flock. Devereux Jarratt, ordained 
in London in 1762, returned the same year to Virginia ; 
and till his death, in 1801, never ceased doing faithfully 
the work of an evangelist. Earnest, simple, and eminently 
heavenly-minded, his ministry was greatly blessed by God ; 
" his converts were exceedingly numerous ; and a few 
aged disciples still living in Virginia acknowledge him as 
their spiritual father."! But, alas, he seems long to have 
stood literally alone ; ' ' at his first answer no man stood 
with him :" and the final loss of the glebes almost made 
the Church low. 

This disastrous conclusion of the long struggle between 
their united enemies and Churchmen took place in the year 
1804. Its last stages were remarkable. In 1799 an act 
had passed the assembly of Virginia, professedly intended 
" to declare the construction of the bill of rights and con- 
stitution concerning religion ;" but really meant to repeal 
every act favorable to the Church which had passed since 
the Revolution. This was followed by another in January 
1802, by which it was declared that the title to the pro- 
perty the Church had held before the Revolution was vested 
in the state at large ; and that, whenever they were va- 
cant, the glebes should be sold for the benefit of the poor of 
the parish. Under this law those acts which always mark 
confiscation followed. The glebes were sold at prices merely 
nominal ; and the small sums which did accrue from them 
flowed into various channels of private profit. The church- 
yards, and the churches with their furniture, were exempt- 
ed from the operations of this law ; yet they, and even the 
communion-plate, were seized and sold. The fruits of this 
confiscation are still to be found. " "Within our own time," 
says Dr. Hawks, " a reckless sensualist has administered 



* Dr. Hawks's Memorials, Virginia, pp. 269, 270. 
f Henshaw's. Life of Bp. Moore, p. 15. 



CHURCH PROPERTY CONFISCATED. 203 

the morning dram to his guests from the silver cup which 
has often contained the consecrated symbol of his Saviour's 
blood. In another instance the entire set of communion- 
plate of one of the old churches is in the hands of one who 
belongs to the society of Baptists." The Bishop of Virgi- 
nia, when on his visitation, has witnessed the conversion of 
a marble baptismal font into a trough for horses.^ 

The act under which these offences were committed 
did not pass without a struggle. When adopted, its consti- 
tutional legality was questioned, and its enforcement resisted 
by processes of law. The decision of the lower courts was 
on the side of confiscation. This judgment was carried by 
appeal before the highest tribunal of Virginia. This court 
consisted of five judges, of whom four only (one as a 
Churchman, deeming himself an interested party) sat upon 
this trial. Of these Judge Pendleton was by seniority the 
president. His judgment, and that of two of his assessors, 
was against the courts below ; and he was about to reverse 
the previous sentence, and so, in fact, repeal this most in- 
jurious law. The morning came on which the final sen- 
tence was to be pronounced, when Judge Pendleton, who 
was already past fourscore, was found dead in his bed from 
a stroke of apoplexy. In his pocket was discovered the 
decision which another day would have made law, secur- 
ing to the Church the full possession of her glebes ; but it 
had not been pronounced, and so was void of all authority. 
The case was heard again before Judge Pendleton's suc- 
cessor. His judgment was the other way ; and thus (Judge 
Fleming still refusing to take part) the court was equally 
divided. The decree from below was therefore officially 
confirmed, and its property taken for ever from the Church. 

Some good and wise end was doubtless answered by 
this reverse ; but its present effect was most disastrous. 
It extinguished wholly the spirit of Churchmen, and was 
followed by a complete prostration of hope and exertion. 
How entire this was has been already seen. One more 
instance may be mentioned.! In the year 1722, within 

* Hawk's Virginia, p. 236. 
f Ibid. p. 267. 



204 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

six counties of what is termed the northern neck of Virginia, 
there were more than twelve churches, all supplied with 
the ministrations of the Gospel. Almost a hundred years 
had passed, and instead of any growth throughout an ex- 
tent of country one hundred miles long and fifteen broad, 
every church and chapel had been forsaken. The road to 
the Chesapeake was studded with mouldering ruins of what 
had once been houses of the Lord ; and if here and there 
one or two seemed at first sight to maintain their fair pro- 
portions, a closer examination showed that it was only that 
the piety of earlier days had built them of a massive 
strength,^ which had enabled them thus long to resist the 
injuries of time. 

Such was the deadly trance which had fallen on the 
Church. From such a state Bishop Madison was not the 
man to rouse it. He was an elegant scholar, with no 
great warmth of Christian character, and a low estimate 
of the spiritual power inherent in the office which he held. 
How far he was fit to discharge its arduous duties in that 
day of reproach, may be gathered from the fact that he 
obtained the eulogies of Thomas Jefferson, the deist in re- 
ligion, and in politics the man who purchased the votes of 
the opponents of the Churcht by so framing the constitu- 
tion of Virginia as to refuse corporate powers to all religious 
societies, and thus prevent their holding property at all. 
Bishop Madison seems to have felt his own unfitness for 
the post he filled. At first, indeed, he manifested some 
activity ; but his early efforts were not crowned with suc- 
cess, and he had not energy enough to persevere without 
such direct and sensible encouragement. In 1805 he ap- 
plied to his diocese for an assistant bishop ; the subject was 
deferred until the convention reassembled in the following 
year. It was never resumed ; — for the convention never 
sat again within his lifetime. During fifteen years of his 
Episcopate the state of things grew more and more disas- 
trous : " he seemed to be like a pilot with his ship amongst 

* These churches are built of bricks which were brought from the 
mother country. Many such still remain, needing little more than 
a roof to render them fit for immediate use. 

t Voice from America, p. 30. 



DAP.K DAYS OF THE CHURCH. 20 

the breakers, who in despair resigns the helm, in expecta- 
tion that his noble barque will soon be stranded as a shat- 
tered wreck upon the shore. "# 

"It was the dark day of the Church, when all slum- 
bered and slept."! They owed their awakening from 
this slumber to that office which Virginia had so greatly 
undervalued ; for it may be clearly traced, under the bless- 
ing of Almighty God, to the appointment and devoted 
labors of another bishop. 

* Dr. HenshaVs Life of Bishop Moore, p. 112. 
f Dr. Hawks. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1811, 12. 

Death of Bp. Madison — Renewal of diocesan convention — Election 
of Dr. Bracken to the episcopate — He refuses it — Dr. Moore elec- 
ted — His early life — Ministerial success — He visits the diocese — 
Stirs up the spirit of Churchmen — Revival of the Church — Growth 
of Church principles — Improved canons — Theological seminary 
founded — And poor scholars' fund — Dr. Meade elected Suffragan, 
with a restriction — Conduct of the house of bishops — Removal of 
restrictions — Bishop B. Moore of Xew-York applies for an assist- 
ant bishop — Dr. J. H. Hobart elected — His origin and youth — 
First ministerial charge in Pennsylvania — Removes to New- York 
— His studies— Publications— Services in state and general conven- 
tion — Controversy with Dr. Mason — Elected bishop— Opposition — 
Bishop Provoost's claim to the bishopric of New York — Disallow- 
ed by the convention — Bishop "White's treatment of Bishop 
Hobart— And high esteem for him. 

The dark day through which our recent history has taken 
us began at last to break away, and, at the period we have 
reached, the sky already glowed in many different direc- 
tions. The old generation was passing away. The deists 
who, with Thomas Jefferson to head them, had long held 
undisputed sway, no longer carried every thing before them. 
There had been a secret upgrowth of a better race, and in 
the Church, as well as elsewhere, men of another temper 
took their places on the stage. Both among the laity and 
clergy, the cold and timid councils of the former genera- 
tion were beginning to give way to energy and zeal. In 
Virginia, Bishop Madison expired in March 1812 ; and the 
first sign of vitality within the diocese w T as the meeting of 
the convention to elect his successor. It was now seven 
years since it had assembled ; and in a state which of old 
could number its hundred clergy, and which required the 
attendance of fifteen to make a quorum, and the presence 



ELECTION OF DR. MOORE. 207 

of twenty-five to pass any canon, thirteen clergymen and 
twelve laymen were all who could be brought together,^ 
Having voted nine a quorum, they proceeded to elect a 
bishop, and chose Dr. Bracken. When the convention met 
the following year (1813), it was to hear that Dr. Bracken 
had declined their offer. This was a disheartening answer. 
The few who had assembled did not proceed to make an- 
other choice ; but feeling strongly their well-nigh hopeless 
destitution, they drew up an address urging on their brethren 
the duty of making fresh exertions in their common cause. 
This " most earnestly entreated them to consider the 
necessity of adopting zealous measures for the restoration of 
religion," especially as, "from the destitute state of the 
churches, many piously disposed persons who were attached 
to the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, were deprived of the means of worship- 
ping God according to her venerable forms, to the great 
unhappiness of themselves, as well as to the great detri- 
ment of the Church at large ;" it besought them " to raise 
a fund for the purpose of aiding in the support of such cler- 
gymen of piety and talents as may be obtained to perform 
divine service in such districts hi the state as may be 
assigned to them by the convention." 

In May 1814 the annual convention re- assembled ; 
seven clergymen and seventeen laymen met in council,! 
and proceeded to elect a bishop. They felt the great im- 
portance of the crisis, and looked far around them for the 
qualities they needed. They plainly saw that it was not 
a time when a merely blameless life or classical attain- 
ments w r ould be enough for him who, amidst their busy 
and disordered population, was to sit on the apostles' seat. 
After full deliberation, they elected Dr. Richard Moore, 
rector of St. Stephen's church, in the city of New- York. 
They had been guided to a happy choice. Dr. Moore had 
received a classical education, but at the close of the war 
of independence he entered on the medical profession, and 
followed it for nearly rune years. His childhood had been 

* Journals of Virginian Convention, p. 181. 
f Vide supra, p. 239. 



208 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

marked by sincere and decided piety ; and though this had 
seemed for a while " choked" by the cares of other things, 
and he entered upon life too much like other men. yet he 
was not long suffered to wander, but in early manhood 
was recalled to the service of the Cross. For a while he 
continued in the practice of medicine, but his soul now 
thirsted for the labors and rewards of the Christian minis- 
try ; and at the time of the Church's most entire prostra- 
tion, when there was least, in possession or in prospect, to 
gratify ambition, he yielded to those guiding impulses, 
quitted his more lucrative profession, and determined to 
prepare for holy orders. In 1787 he was admitted deacon 
by Bishop Provoost, being the first ordained by him, — the 
first therefore ever set apart for this high calling in JN~ew- 
York, — and making then the sixth clergyman in that large 
diocese, which has now for several years numbered more 
than its 200. The blessing of a religious youth rested on 
the new-made deacon ; within this same Church he had 
been baptised into the name of Jesus Christ, confirmed, hi 
due season, in the faith, and first admitted to the holy 
eucharist. From it he went forth to his work in the fulness 
of the blessing of the gospel of peace. His first field of 
labor was on Staten Island, where for one-and-twenty years 
he was rector of St. Andrew's. An unusual increase 
crowned his ministerial labors ; although he raised before 
his flock a high standard of pastoral piety, yet no fewer 
than 100 new communicants were gathered in one year 
around the altar of his church. In 1809 he moved to St. 
Stephen's, on the outskirts of his native city of New- York. 
Here all was yet in its infancy. About thirty families at- 
tended, and the communicants numbered not more than 
twenty. For five years he labored among them ; and when 
called to the Virginian episcopate, he left behind him a 
body of 400 communicants. 

When the see was first offered to him, he shrunk from 
the charge, and refused to leave New- York. Many cir- 
cumstances added weight to that Christian diffidence which 
might well lead any man to shun, as far as lawfully he 
may, the perilous height of the episcopate. Moore, though 
devoted with all the ardor of feelings more than usually 



CHARACTER OF BISHOP MOORE. 209 

warm to the distinctive doctrines of the gospel of God's 
grace, and even laboring from this cause under some re- 
proach from men of a colder and more unimpassioned tem- 
per, was yet conscientiously attached to the distinctive 
principles of his own communion. Previous to his settling 
there, the chief families of Kichmond had formed " a kind 
of joint spiritual charge, watched over with alternate ser- 
vices by an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian."^ The 
invitations which he now received hinted at the probable 
expediency of some concessions to sectarian feelings, and 
took for granted from his well-known character, that he 
would be a likely man to further their adoption. It was 
notorious that there were points on which his judgment 
had differed widely from that of Bishop Hobart ; that he 
had encouraged, under due restrictions, social meetings for 
prayer ; that he favored meetings of the clergy for the pur- 
pose of devotion ; and that he maintained such doctrine as 
found utterance in the following letter to his future coadju- 
tor : — " That we are too cold is a solemn truth. To remedy 
this evil is in our power, provided we will seek the aid of 
God's Holy Spirit in sincere and fervent prayer ; and I am 
persuaded that if we honestly call upon God to assist us 
with His grace, and honestly preach His own word, He 
will make that word quick and powerful to the conversion 
of those who hear it."f But these principles implied no 
bias to sectarian views : and so his correspondents soon 
discovered. 

" The state," they tell him, "of the Church in Virginia 
is indeed most deplorable. The desolations of many gene- 
rations are to be repaired — now is the trying and critical 
moment — now is to be decided whether God means to keep 
a remnant of our Church alive among us, or to destroy it 
entirely. The town of Richmond contains by far the 
largest body of Episcopalians in the southern country. If 
some one of suitable talents and real piety does not go there, 
it will either fail into the hands of some miserable creature 
(many of whom have already been fawning for it), or, if a 

* Life of Bishop Moore. 

t Letter to Mr., afterwards Bishop Meade, — Life of Bishop Moore, 
p. 98. The capitals are the bishop's. 



210 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

clever Presbyterian should offer, they will throw away Epis- 
copacy, and fall under his banners. And if Episcopacy dies 

there at the heart, of course it dies elsewhere Certain 

I am, that unless we have a bishop of real piety, zeal, and 
talents in Richmond, Episcopacy is gone for ever." 

The apprehension of these dangers so fully occupied 
the minds of these good men as to incline them to attempt 
to tread the fatal path of compromise and false conciliation. 
" The Church," they say, " in Virginia," (for it is always 
under this delusion that this temptation is disguised), " is 
in a peculiar situation. Its having been once the estab- 
lished Church, the prevalence and virulence of other deno- 
minations, the sequestration of its glebes, the irregularity of 
the lives of its ministers, and various political causes, have 
combined to swell high the tide of public opinion, and in- 
deed of odium, against her public form of service, her sur- 
plices, and all the paraphernalia of clerical costume 

Under these circumstances, to hearts thus constructed, 
it appears to me that no man can carry out our forms in 

all their rubrical vigor with any prospect of success 

We want a bishop who will watch over his clergy with 
tears and tenderness ; who will be an example as well as 
teacher to his flock ; who will know nothing amongst us 
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified ; and who, whilst he 
inculcates a due reverence for our venerable forms of doc- 
trine, discipline, and worship, as being of apostolic author- 
ity, will at the same time direct his best endeavors towards 
the end of all religious institutions, namely, the deliver- 
ance of immortal souls from hell. Such a bishop will have 
our co-operation, our love, and our prayers." 

The temptation was here masked in much to which 
the warm heart of Moore was sure readily to answer ; but 
it was put aside without hesitation. 

" The prejudices," he tells his correspondent, " which 
are entertained by many of the Virginians against the 
services of the Church and the appropriate costume of the 
clergy, afford matter of considerable surprise to a person 
bred in this part of the union. . . . Educated in the bosom 
of the Episcopal Church, I have always been taught to 
entertain the most profound respect for all her services. 



EPISCOPATE OF MOORE. 211 

.... Let the ministers of the Church tread in the steps 
of their divine Master ; let them visit the sick and bind up 
the broken-hearted ; let the poor of Christ's flock be the 
objects of their care ; and I will venture to predict that 
the mountains of opposition will, in a little time, become 
plain ; the Prayer-book will be venerated, our ceremonies 
approved, the cause of the Church will be promoted, and 
penitent sinners will seek for an asylum in our bosom." 

To these principles he adhered throughout the corres- 
pondence, steadily maintaining, at the same time, his first 
position, that he would not come " on trial;" but if elected 
rector of Richmond, he would then, with the approbation 
of the Bishop of New- York, accept the offered charge. 

An application to Bishop Hobart as to the character of 
Moore drew forth the assurance, that from " the confidence 
felt in his fidelity to his principles, and in his prudent and 
zealous efforts to advance the interests of the Church, he 
would remove to Virginia with the regret of him whose 
diocese he quitted, and with the good wishes and prayers 
of his brethren generally." 

The Virginians at length assented to his terms ; and 
his bishop j udging that he ought not to refuse what was 
pressed on him with such urgency, he was chosen rector 
of the Monumental Church in Richmond ; and (which had 
never befallen a clergyman residing in another diocese) 
was, directly after, elected by convention, to the vacant 
see. 

On the 18th of May, 1814, he was consecrated to the 
office of a bishop in St. James's Church, Philadelphia. 
Bishop Hobart, in the consecration-sermon, ventured to 
predict that " the night of adversity had passed, and that 
a long and splendid day was now dawning on the Church 
in Virginia." And a little further on he adds, addressing 
publicly the newly elected bishop, " How fervent will be 
our thanks to God, who hath made you the instrument of 
this great good !" 

Much was expected from his labors ; and the expecta- 
tion was not disappointed. The bishop set to work at once 
in the visitation of his diocese ; and wherever he went, his 
fervent spirit awoke the slumbering energies of those to 



212 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

whom he came. He returned to report to the convention 
of 1815 the rising promise of the Church. Some of its 
first-fruits might be seen in the increased attendance at this 
synod of the diocese, at which the number present exactly 
doubled that of the preceding year. He encouraged them 
to seek and look for great results : he told them of the 
earnest desire which he had found in many districts to re- 
pair the waste places of their fathers' Church : of parishes 
which had seemed wholly extinct suddenly aroused to life 
and vigor ; of others where the whole congregation had 
burst into tears as he spoke to them of the ancient glory 
and present desolation of their Church. 

The bishop did not raise his voice in vain. The laity 
were manifestly roused. From parish after parish he re- 
ceived earnest applications for a resident minister. In the 
succeeding year ten new churches were reported as in pro- 
gress of erection, and eight formerly dismantled as now un- 
der repair. His own labors were unabated. He traversed the 
whole diocese repeatedly ; crossing the mountains of the 
Blue Ridge, and even advancing to aid the destitute state 
of North Carolina. His tone of preaching was earnest, af- 
fectionate, and simple. It raised the Cross of Christ and 
His salvation before the eyes of all ; and God gave him 
the hearts of men. His zeal was contagious ; and zealous 
pastors of the flock quickly gathered round him. 

The younger clergy undertook the work of missionaries 
in the widely scattered field, and collected new congrega- 
tions throughout all the province, whilst he had the joy of 
sending many fresh laborers into his Master's vineyard. 
Many were the dry and withered hearts which were thus 
awoke to Christian life and gladness. This was the es- 
pecial work of Bishop Moore ; and a blessed work it was. 
But there still was little done to impress on their disjointed 
body the sense of its unity, to gather up its scattered parts 
into a living and self-conscious whole. Here and there, 
indeed, there were signs of returning life. There were faint 
reachings forth after discipline and order ; some irregulari- 
ties were laid aside. A few of the clergy, in the vain expec- 
tation of removing prejudice, had begun to substitute in part, 
unauthorised devotions for the service of the liturgy. 



EPISCOPATE OF MOORE. 213 

Against this the bishop raised his voice in timely warning, 
and led his convention strongly to condemn the practice.^ 
Other tokens of improvement may be found. In the year 
1815, the offensive canon which declared a bishop amenable 
to his convention had been rescinded : while new rules com- 
mitted the trial of a bishop to his brethren in the sacred col- 
lege, and specially provided, that " none but a bishop shall 
prononce sentence of deposition or degradation from the min- 
istry on any bishop, presbyter, or deacon."! 

The time had been when, from a misplaced jealousy, 
Virginia had declared that every bishop should continue to 
discharge the duties of a parish priest : but now, not only 
was this rule withdrawn, but it was proposed to found a 
fund for the episcopate, that no bishop might be kept by min- 
isterial duties from his higher charge. 

Another mark of life may be discovered in the new pro- 
vision made for the education of the clergy. Two plans 
promoted this important end ; one, the foundation of a 
theological seminary, which has proved of the greatest va- 
lue both hi supplying candidates for the ministry, and also 
in raising the tone of clerical character ; the other, the 
formation of a fund (in 1818) for the education of young 
men of piety, who were desirous of entering into holy or- 
ders. Such an institution was greatly needed hi America, 
where there are few endowments left by the piety of ear- 
lier days. No discredit is attached to the student who is 
thus supported ; though he who is maintained by living 
benefactors cannot know the independence of the scholar 
of an English University. Yet this institution has proved 
most important ; it has opened a way to the ministry to 
those whose hearts longed for its sacred work, but whose 
narrow means would have made due preparation for its 
duties unattainable by them.} Nearly one-tenth of the 
clergy had, in 1836, in whole or in part, been assisted by 
this society ; one-sixth of the present clergy of Ohio, one- 
eighth of those of Pennsylvania, one-fifth of those of Mary- 
land, and a large proportion of those in Virginia, had de- 

* Journals of Virginia Convention. 

f Acts of Convention in Virginia, 1815. 

j Dr. Hawks (1836), note to Memorials, Virginia, p. 261. 



214 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

rived aid from its funds, while it was still affording assis- 
tance to about one-seventh of all the students in the several 
theological schools of the Church in the United States. 
Many of the leading clergy in the west have owed their 
early training to this source. 

All these were movements in the right direction. But 
much yet remained to be corrected. There still appear on 
the journals of convention notices which startle an English 
eye. Such are, the "grateful acceptance of Presbyterian and 
Baptist Churches for divine service during the session ;* 
the record of " churches nearly completed, but not exclu- 
sively episcopal ;"t and the return of " forty com- 
municants, only fifteen of whom may be considered mem- 
bers of the episcopal Church," whilst the attendance of 
members of "other denominations" is spoken of as " gladly 
witnessed and affectionately encouraged. "J 

But perhaps the least favorable feature of the whole is 
the result of various contributions attempted at this time 
for the promotion of the common purposes of Churchmen. 
It is not that they were poor ; for never was the Church 
of Christ so full of strength as when its poverty was deep- 
est ; never was it so truly rich as before it had gathered in 
the treasures of the earth. Such entries, therefore, as an 
extra vote of a few dollars for the unusual charge of the 
carriage-hire for a part of their bishop's visitation might 
bespeak times of primitive simplicity. § But it is painful 
to know, that these things marked the Church's poverty 
when Churchmen were rich. This clearly bespoke some 
great want in their system. 

It is painful to find the aged Bishop Moore " thanking 
his laity for the patronage extended by them to his clergy 
and himself ;" || and the more so when we see the utter 
failure of all efforts to raise funds for the support of the 
episcopate. Year by year the subject was renewed, and 
always with the same result. In vain did conventions 

* Journal of 1821. f lb., 1826. \ lb., 1821 

§ Of a like character is the notice of a horse, worth a hundred 

dollars, being left on hand by a missionary, who, after it had been 

purchased for him, declined that sphere of labor. 
|| Journal of 1832. 



POVERTY OF THE CHURCH. 215 

dwell upon the need of the bishop's "visiting every part 
of the diocese, encouraging the desponding, rousing the 
thoughtless, giving direction to the zeal and energy of the 
pious, and impressing upon the whole a salutary impulse ;" 
in vain they urged that " words alone were cheap, and in- 
sufficient to make their cause flourish ;" in vain did the 
aged bishop himself press on them, time after time, that he 
thought this " a matter of leading importance ;" that the 
" wants of his own parish made his visitations in a dio- 
cese of 70,000 square miles in extent, hurried and ineffec- 
tual ;" in vain did he, when his age made it impossible 
that he should reap any personal advantage from it, sup- 
plicate them earnestly to make provision for his successor, 
— still the proposed fund made no perceptible advance 
and scarcely could a few dollars be annually raised to sup- 
ply him with assistance when he was well nigh worn out 
in their service. 

The same evil maybe traced as pressing with its heavy 
weight on the inferior clergy. The bishop traces^ to their 
"inadequate support, their frequent removal from one 
parish to another ; removals often attended with results 
injurious to the clergy, and always to the congregations 
left in a destitute state." He speaks " of the want of sup- 
port producing uneasiness in their minds and paralysing 
their efforts, " and of " extreme penury borne with silent 
suffering by the pious, excellent, and well educated cler- 
gyman." 

These are painful features. Some of them are evils 
inherent hi the voluntary system ; some of them were the 
remains of the torpid numbness which had long entranced 
religion. But from these we turn gladly to the brighter 
prospect. There was a great rekindling of personal devo- 
tion. An ardent zeal largely pervaded the younger clergy ; 
poor as was their earthly recompense, their ranks were 
now recruited from the best blood of Virginia, the most aris- 
tocratic district of the Union. Though still far too few for 
the population, their number was greatly on the increase. 
The seven who met in convention at the election of Bishop 
Moore had multiplied to thirty-five. 
* Journal of 1835. 



216 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

This was, in a great measure, his work. For fourteen 
years Bishop Moore continued, without interruption, his 
successful labors ; and then feeling the infirmities of age 
beginning to abate his vigor, he applied in 1828, to his 
convention, begging them to nominate a clergyman for 
consecration as his suffragan. In the convention of the 
following year his wish was gratified by the election of 
the Rev. Wm. Meade to fill the office. It was. however, 
cogged with one unwise condition. Dr. Meade was elected 
suffragan only for the life of Bishop Moore ; and on his 
death a new election was to nominate his absolute suc- 
cessor. Against this the house of bishops instantly pro- 
tested ; and as Virginia jealously maintained her own 
arrangement, a dispute, and probably a breach, appeared 
to be at hand ; but it was happily avoided by the conse- 
cration of the suffragan elect, while the danger of the pre- 
cedent was turned aside by the enactment of a general 
canon, which defined the office, and secured in every in- 
stance the succession of assistant -bishops. Virginia showed 
her sense of the judicious kindness of this treatment, by 
removing, in 1829, of her own act, the restriction she had 
placed on Dr. Meade's succession. In him Bishop Moore 
found a meet assistant and a worthy successor. 

The two worked happily together ; and, till the aged 
principal was gathered to his rest, he watched with full 
rejoicing over the prosperous labors of his younger coadju- 
tor. " To the neighborhoods and distant congregations I 
once visited with great delight," he says, a little while be- 
fore his end, " I have bidden, through the effects of infir- 
mity, a final adieu ; and it is only on the return of our 
conventional meetings that I am blessed with the sight of 
my old friends, and am permitted to shake by the hands a 
family of clergymen who have been set apart to the min- 
istry of the Gospel by myself. From the record of the 
clergy of the diocese, I find that, out of sixty-six, forty-four 
have received the imposition of my own hands, and been 
clothed with ministerial authority by myself. Be deter- 
mined," continues the aged bishop, 'T beseech you, to make 
full proof of your ministry. Preach Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified. In all your trials, my beloved sons, may the 



ELECTION OF BISHOP HOBART. 217 

Almighty be your place of refuge ; and underneath you 
may He place the everlasting arms of his love."^ With 
his " latest voice," it was, he declared, his own hope that 
he should " proclaim the riches of redeeming grace," and 
assert, in his " last moments," that " God is love."f 

To keep unbroken the thread of Virginian history, we 
have followed out the life of Bishop Moore, and advanced 
far beyond the dates to which we must now return. 

The blessing 'which Virginia thus received in 1814, 
had been given some years sooner, not only to New- York, 
but to the whole Church of North America, in the Episco- 
pate of Dr. John Henry Hobart. For ten years after 
Bishop Provoost's resignation, New- York remained hi the 
care of the gentle-hearted Bishop B. Moore. But, in 
March, 1811, an attack of paralysis brought his active 
labors to a sudden close. Feeling keenly his unfitness for 
the charge which rested on him, he called at once a special 
convention, and urged them to appoint an assistant-bishop, 
who should share or undertake the anxieties and labors of 
his post. The convention followed his advice ; and pro- 
ceeding at once to the election, nominated John Henry 
Hobart, one of the assistant-ministers of Trinity, New- 
York. 

This was a turning-point in the history of the Western 
Church. Hobart was a man who at any time would have 
left on his communion an impress of his own character ; in 
the unformed state of institutions and opinions in that land, 
it could not fail of being deeply and broadly marked. Iden- 
tified as is his personal history with the great movement 
we have now to trace, we shall better understand his prin- 
ciples and influence, if we first mark the formation of his 
character, and the course of his life 4 

Hobart was sprung from the best of the old Puritan 
stock. His ancestor, the Rev. Peter Hobart, the son of 



* Journals of Virginian Conventions. 

f Life of Bishop Moore, p 210. 

j The events of Bishop Hobart's life are drawn freely from Dr. 
M'Vickar's Memoir, except where a special reference indicates 
another source. 
10 



218 AMERICAN CHUPcCH. 

" parents eminient for piety," * and himself " a painful 
servant of the Lord," settled at Massachusetts in 1635. 
He was "a person that met with many temptations and 
afflictions, "t and who, amongst the New-England worthies, 
bore away the palm for " well-studied sermons." Though 
so devoted to his views of truth that he quitted a beloved 
home to avoid what he esteemed the " blackening cloud of 
prelatical impositions," he was a man of a Catholic spirit; 
with a " heart knit in a most sincere and hearty love to- 
wards pious men, though they were not in all things of his 
own persuasion. He would admire the grace of God in 
good men, though they were of sentiments contrary unto 
his, and would say, I can carry them in my bosom." There 
were none, indeed, from whom he so much turned away, 
as those amongst his own people, "who, under a pretence 
of zeal for Church-discipline, were very pragmatical in 
controversies ; but at the same time most unjust creatures, 
destitute of the life and power of godliness." These he 
would bridle with the saying : " Some men are all Church 
and no Christ." 

Of his race proceeded a goodly company of preachers ; 
amongst whom the Apostolic Brain erd must be mentioned 
as his daughter's son. From this Peter Hobart, sprung in 
the fourth generation the future bishop of New- York : and 
in many traits of character the stamp of the old pilgrim- 
father was repeated in him. His immediate parents had 
migrated to Philadelphia, and rejoined the ancient Church 
of their old English forefathers. There his early youth 
was spent beneath the pastoral charge of the venerable 
Bishop White. It was a youth of the fairest promise ; the 
joy and hope of his early- widowed mother. At the close 
of his education he was almost drawn into a life of busi- 
ness. But better things were hi store for him; and the 
guiding Hand led him, instead, to devote his energy and 
powers to the ministry of Christ's Church. His prepara- 
tion for its duties was patient and severe. The head of 
his college wished him to begin by studying a system of 

* Cotton Mather's Magnaiia, b. iii. p. J 53. 
t Ibid. p. 155. 



ORDINATION OF BISHOP HOBART. 219 

divinity ; but from this easier mode of obtaining a general 
dogmatic accuracy, the healthy instincts of his soul re- 
volted ; and complaining of the plan of " studying Scrip- 
ture to support preconceived opinions," he wisely resolved 
" to take up systems when he had gone through the study 
of the Bible." After due preparation he presented himself 
for ordination before the good old man by whom he had 
already been first received at the font, and then confirmed 
by the laying on of hands ; and from him received his 
orders and mission as a minister of Christ. Truly humble 
was his estimate of himself : " I am far from thinking that 
I am qualified for the ministry either hi mental or spirit- 
ual acquirements. ... I am afraid that my views are not 
sufficiently pure. . . . Sacred and awful will be my duties; 
the grace of God can alone enable me to execute them. 
. . . Oh, pray with me, that I may have a single eye to 
His glory and the salvation of immortal souls ; that He 
would subdue within me every desire of honor, emolument, 
or human praise ; and that I may serve Him with sincerity 
and truth." ^ With such self-suspicion did he turn away 
from those paths which would have led him straight to 
earthly fame, and addict himself to the humble walk of 
the American ministry. 

He was ordained, in 1798, to the charge of tw r o small 
parishes within the diocese of Pennsylvania ; one of them 
amongst the earliest gathered in that district by the mis- 
sionary labors of George Keith ; and still, to the grief of 
its young pastor, a " dispersed flock, with little zeal, and 
much intermixed with other denominations. "f Here he 
stayed a year ; and having thence removed, first to New 
Brunswick, and then to Hampstead in Long Island, he 
settled, in the autumn of 1800, as assistant-minister of 
Trinity Church, New- York, This was a prominent situ- 
ation, and one to which, under common circumstances, no 
deacon of two years could have aspired ; since New- York 
might be considered the metropolis of North America, and 
Trinity stood at the head of all its churches. $ Unlike the 

* M'Vickar's Life, p. 152. 

f Letter to the Rev. E Grant, — M'Vickar's Life, p. 170. 

X Before the Revolution it stood 146 feet in length, 72 in width, 



220 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

rest, its revenues were ample, having been endowed by 
Lord Cornbury, the royal governor, with a farm, which is 
now covered by the increasing town. Its ministers had 
always been the leading men of their body. # Here, then, 
Hobart took his station, and was soon conspicuous for the 
zealous assiduity with which he discharged its duties. 
Though when he first settled in New- York he "panted for 
the country," and thought that he " could never like a 
city," yet he* was soon fixed in it for life ; declining a call 
to his native town because he possessed where he was 
" every opportunity for the exercise of whatever means of 
usefulness" he could command. 

These opportunities were manifold. As a preacher he 
rose quickly to the highest rank ; in pastoral visits, and 
the distracting detail of ministerial life, he was active and 
unwearied : and yet for the labors of his study he saved 
many hours by late watching and early application, and 
snatched others by ready diligence from the intervals of 
busy days. 

" His earliest residence was a very small two-story 
house, the rear of which was rendered airy by the prox- 
imity of the river. The attic chamber here formed his 
study, as being the most retired and quiet spot in the 
house, with windows looking out over the noble expanse 
of the Hudson to the opposite shores of Jersey, and having 
for the back-ground of the view the distant hills of Spring- 
field. 

" In this little sanctum, surrounded, or, to speak more 
justly, walled in, by piles of folios and heaps of pamphlets, 
through the zig-zag mazes of which it was no easy matter 

and with a spire of 180 feet in height. In 1776, in common with 
the city round it, it was consumed by fire, and lay in ruins through 
the war of the Revolution. A new church was built in 1788, which 
though 42 feet shorter, was of a higher character than its predeces- 
sor. This, in its turn, has given place to the present imposing 
structure. 

* Rev. Charles Inglis, D.'D. (afterwards first Bishop of Nova 
Scotia) was rector from 1777 to 1783. W 

Right Rev. S. Provoost 1783 to 18U0. 

Right Rev. B. Moore . . . . . . 1800 to 1816. 

Right Rev. J. H. Hobart 1811 to 1830. 



hobart's public duties. 221 

for a stranger to make his way, you might mid the young 
theologian entrenched, and passing every minute both of the 
day and night that could he snatched from sleep and hasty 
meals, or spared from the higher claims of parochial duty. 
These latter interruptions were so numerous, that by one 
less vigorously resolute in gathering up the scattered crumbs 
of time, they would have been pleaded as a sufficient apol- 
ogy for the remission of all study beyond necessary prepa- 
ration for the pulpit."^ 

But this was far from Mr. Hobart's habit. From this 
study proceeded many devotional and other works, some 
original, and some remodelled by his pen; and here he 
devised, and, till his accession to the episcopate, conducted, 
" The Churchman's Magazine," a monthly publication 
which contributed in no slight measure to raise the princi- 
ples and hopes of those to whom it was addressed. To 
these more private occupations he added the discharge of 
public duties. He was early f elected secretary to the dio- 
cesan convention of New- York ; and chosen one of the de- 
puties to represent the diocese in the general convention 
which met the same year. In each department he was 
at once distinguished as a man of business. From 1801 
till 1811 he discharged the duties of the first, and was al- 
ways re-elected to the second. He was also annually chosen 
on the standing committee of the diocese. ■ 

But it was not in this course of labor, useful as it was, 
that his chief services were rendered. To understand these 
we must look more closely into his character and princi- 
ples, and see their peculiar action on the state of things 
around him. He came, then, to New- York when the uni- 
versal tone of thought and feeling in the body which he 
joined was low and torpid. The impression of their first 
bishop's character was plainly legible upon the Churchmen 
of New- York : with indistinct views of Christian doctrine ; 
moralists for the most part, rather than believers ; conscious 
of being objects of suspicion, and almost thinking that sus- 
picion just, — they never ventured in defending their position 
beyond the cautious tone of timid apology. 

* M'Vickar's Life. t In 1801. 



AMERICAN CHURCH, 

In this state Hobart found matters ; but their continu- 
ance in this state he would not endure. Trained in a 
Presbyterian college, he was a Churchman on the fullest 
conviction of his reason. He early declared^ his own prin- 
ciples to run up in brief into these two : " That we are 
saved from the guilt and dominion of sin by the divine 
merits and grace of a crucified Redeemer ; and thai the 
merits and grace of this Redeemer are applied to the soul of 
the believer by devout and humble participation in the ordi- 
nances of the Church, administered by a priesthood who 
derive their authority by regular transmission from Christ, 
the divine Head of the Church, and the source of all the 
power in it." 

Many a sleeper must have been startled by such a voice 
as this, whether true or false in its announcement, from one 
resolute, and thoroughly in earnest ; and Hobart was both. 
He was convinced that this was the truth, and he was ready 
to live or to die for it. All his ministry spoke this conviction. 
In the pulpit " he warned, counselled, entreated, and com- 
forted, with intense power and energy. His manner and 
voice struck you with the deep interest which pervaded 
his soul for their salvation. He appeared ... as a herald 
from the other world, standing between the dead and the 
living . . . entreating perishing sinners not to reject the 
message of reconciliation which the Son of the living God 
so graciously offered for their acceptance."! "He never 
ceased to preach ' Christ crucified,' the only Saviour of 
sinners ; and to exhort them, ' even with tears,' to lay hold 
upon that salvation, by entering into covenant with Him 
in that Church which He had purchased with His blood, "f 
And what he was in the pulpit he was everywhere ; by 
the sick-bed or in society, abroad or at home, this was still 
his watch- word— " The Gospel in the Church," " Evangelical 
truth and apostolical order :" these he pressed on all as the 
subjects closest to his own heart, and the most concerning 
theirs. The awakening sleepers of his own communion 

* Preface to a Companion to the Altar, by J. H. Hobart, 1804. 
f Letter to the Rev. T. Chalmers, D. D., on the Life and Charac- 
ter of the Right Rev. Dr. Hobart, bv Archdeacon Strachan. 
% Dr. M'Vickar, p. 187. 



EFFECTS OF HOBART S EARNESTNESS. 223 

could not understand him ; and feeling only his warmth, 
reprove their coldness, they knew not whether to reproach 
him as a " High Churchman or Methodist. 5 ' Still he rose 
daily in general esteem. His sincerity could not be ques- 
tioned, and none could doubt his kindness ; whilst his 
talents for business were seen and felt by all. Hence his 
constant re-election as secretary to his own, and delegate 
to the general, convention. 

Other effects also were soon visible. The cold timidity 
which had benumbed all men began to pass away. He 
was gathering round him a band of younger men, laity as 
well as clergy, of a new temper — men who believed that 
Christ had indeed founded a spiritual kingdom, and that 
they had functions in it to discharge, and powers with 
which to fulfil them. The fruit of this was soon seen on 
all sides ; in the increased attendance on conventions ; the 
growing support of Church societies ; and, which was far 
better, in the new religious earnestness of all. It is clear 
that he was raised up to do a special work ; to consolidate 
and bind together the loose and crumbling mass ; to raise 
the general tone ; to animate their zeal ; to save them from 
the fatal apathy into which they were subsiding. 

But this change could not pass on his own communion 
and not be felt abroad. The Church of that day was 
utterly depressed. The time, indeed, was in some degree 
gone by, when the " prejudices against the name and office 
of a bishop were such as to make it doubtful whether any 
person in that character would be tolerated hi the com- 
munity. " # But it was " a time of loose principles and 
morals;"! and suspicion had given place only to contempt. 
" He had been invested," was the language used concern- 
ing Bishop Seabury's consecration, "or imagined himself 
invested, with certain extraordinary powers by the manual 
imposition of a few obscure and ignorant priests in Scot- 
land." t Under such a stigma Churchman had been 
hitherto contented to remain ; unresisting, if not half per- 
suaded of its justice. But this was now passed ; and the 

* Bishop "White's Dedication of Mem. of Epis. Chur. 

f Letter of Bishop J. H. Hobart,— M'Vickar's Life, p. 235. 

X American Unitarianism, p. 15 : quoted by Dr. M'Vickar. 



224 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

altered temper of the Church was felt. It was not that 
Hobart assailed those without ; he addressed his own peo- 
ple ; but so his voice passed of necessity abroad, and stirred 
up attacks to which he rejoined. He was called out by 
the times, and he was needful for them. Dr. Mason, the 
leading Presbyterian of the day, in a review which he con- 
ducted, aimed a blow intended to " give a quietus to the 
aspiring ambition of the young Churchman." With this 
formidable opponent Mr. Hobart calmly and gravely joined 
issue, in "An Apology for Apostolic Order and its Advo- 
cates," published in 1807, which is said to have drawn 
from his keen antagonist himself the remarkable admis- 
sion : "Were I compelled to entrust the safety of my coun- 
try to any one man, that man should be John Henry Ho- 
bart." 

JSTor was it only by the pen that he had to defend this 
cause. His chief power lay in action. It would be hard 
to find in his writings any of the stamp of genius. They 
are plain, energetic, forcible, and marked throughout by 
the strong common sense of a man of business. In his 
practical power was his strength ; action was natural to 
him. This strength was first tested as trustee of Colum- 
bia College. Open to all denominations, this had received 
its endowments from the gift of the Episcopalians of Trin- 
ity Church, jNew-York. Its board-meetings were a field 
of battle on which each persuasion sought to obtain the 
mastery, and in this strife the true interests of the college 
were neglected. After many struggles, the Presbyterian 
Dr. Mason had attained to almcst undisputed sway. Of 
commanding size and features, bold, eloquent, and bitter, 
few men dared to face his withering and scornful sarcasm. 
But he now met one who feared him not. Wanting in 
the gifts of person, Hobart had all the mental and moral 
qualities which make men leaders of their fellows. Un- 
daunted, ready, and sagacious, he never abandoned a prin- 
ciple, deserted a friend, or quailed before an enemy. " The 
Church needs no abler representative," was the judgment 
of a bystander, a sectarian and a lawyer, who witnessed 
these contentions ; "he has all the talents of a leader ; he 
is the most parliamentary speaker I ever met with ; he is 



CONSECRATION OP HOBART. 225 

equally prompt, logical, and practical. I never saw that 
man thrown off his centre." In these struggles Hobart 
gained the day. His position was, that there must be one 
distinct line in the management of such a trust ; that for 
this there must be an ascertained majority in favor of one 
party ; and that here, the body which supplied the funds 
was justly entitled to the supremacy. His success was 
complete ; and the undivided energy with which the inter- 
ests of the college were promoted when this majority 
was ascertained, justified the conflicts by which it was 
secured. 

One other quality which fitted him to lead was shown 
in these contentions. During these ten years of public 
strife, it may be doubted if he made one private enemy. 
He had inherited his pilgrim-father's largeness of affection ; 
and whilst identified with that which he esteemed the 
cause of truth, he lived on terms of unrestrained friendship 
with those of other views. 

It was in the midst of this active course that Hobart 
was elected bishop. Difficulties beset his consecration ; 
for the American episcopate was already so reduced in 
number, that it was no easy matter to obtain the presence 
of three bishops. Bishops Seabury, R. Smith, and Bass 
had entered on their rest ; Bishop Moore was incapacitated 
by paralysis ; Bishop Claggett was turned back by dan- 
gerous sickness ; and Bishop Madison was bound by oath 
to residence within his college in Virginia. There remained 
only Bishops White, Jarvis, and Provoost — himself in great 
infirmity, and having, for the last ten years, performed no 
act belonging to his office. By these three, however, after 
some embarrassment, Dr. A. V. Qriswold, elected bishop 
of the eastern diocese (now formed by the addition of Ver- 
mont and Hhode Island to Massachusetts raid New-Hamp- 
shire), and Dr. J. H. Hobart, were admitted to the high- 
est order of the priesthood. To the presiding bishop it was 
an affecting service. Dr Hobart, though not an untried, was 
yet a young man* and to the spiritual father who had 
formerly baptised and confirmed him seemed to belong 

* Aged 35. 
10* 



226 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

naturally the words of " Paul the aged,"* " Thou there- 
fore, my son, he strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. "f 
" I shall have peculiar satisfaction," he declared, " in the 
consecration of a brother, known in his infancy, in his boy- 
hood, in his youth, and in his past labors in the ministry, 
.... and look with the most sanguine prospects to the 
issue." The old man dwelt with pleasure on the recollec- 
tion of counsels he had given formerly to one who, for the 
future, was to be a colleague, and " who may," he added, 
"in the common course of affairs, be expected to survive 
.... when he who gave those counsels shall be no more." 
In this only was his augury untrue. The younger minis- 
try was first accomplished ; the younger man was gathered 
soonest to his rest ; and the aged saint survived to weep 
nineteen years later over his grave. 

No second candidate divided with Hobart the votes of 
the convention, and he opened his episcopate with general 
acclammations. But amidst these one voice of unworthy 
jealousy was loudly uttered. Another presbyter, a fellow- 
assistant at Trinity Church, New- York, published his " so- 
lemn remonstrance" against this election. The ineffectual 
weapon recoiled at last, and with destructive force, against 
himself. But for the present the remonstrance awoke a 
a tumult of bitterness and strife. One of its effects was to 
bring Bishop Provoost in a most unseemly manner again 
before the Church. No doubt he recognised in Hobart 
some of those features which had formerly been so distaste- 
ful to him in the first bishop of Connecticut ; and under 
these impressions he became, in the weakness of old age, 
the tool of others to wound the assistant-bishop on whose 
head his own hand had just been laid. His first step was 
to claim a right to that jurisdiction which he had of old re- 
signed. This was met at once by the diocesan convention. 
Distinguishing with careful accuracy between the indelible 
office of a bishop, which it had not given and could not re- 
move, and that local jurisdiction to which he had been 
elected by itself, it resolved that "the Eight Rev. Samuel 
Provoost, immediately after the acceptance of his resigna- 

* Philemon 9. f 2 Tim. ii. 1. 



BISHOP WHITE'S CHARACTER OP HOBART. 227 

tion by the convention of the Church in this state, ceased 
to be the diocesan bishop thereof, and could no longer 
rightfully exercise the functions or jurisdiction appertain- 
ing to that office ; that having ceased to be the diocesan bi- 
shop as aforesaid, he could neither resume nor be restored 
to that character by any act of his own, or of the general 
convention, or either of its houses, without the consent and 
participation of the said state convention, which consent 
and participation the said Bishop Provoost has not obtain- 
ed ; and that his claim to such a character is therefore 
unfounded." 

Upon the passing of this resolution, Bishop Provoost no 
longer urged his ill-advised claim. It was clear that he was 
altogether wrong. His spiritual order the convention could 
not touch ; but the jurisdiction which he exercised in virtue 
of their choice, which he had resigned, and which had passed 
to Bishop Moore on his election by convention, it was as 
impossible for Dr. Provoost to resume at will. 

It is pleasant to contrast with this unhappy conduct 
the course of the aged Bishop White. Of a wholly differ- 
ent school, he did full justice to the solid excellence of 
Hobart ; no creeping jealousy alloyed his praises. " Ne- 
ver," he afterwards declared, had he " known any one on 
whose integrity and conscientiousness of conduct he had 
more full reliance ;" and in the prospect of his own ap- 
proaching end, he had thought, he said, with " gratifica- 
tion, that he should leave behind him one whose past zeal 
and labors were a pledge that he would not cease to be 
efficient in extending the Church and preserving her integ- 
rity." 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM 1310 TO 1820. 

Episcopate of Bishop Hobart — Two first years of opposition — Rise 
of Church societies — Effect upon the laity — New tone of feeling 
and action — Bishop Hobart with his clergy — His language as to 
the Church of Rome — His visitations — General spread of the 
Church — Increase of bishoprics — State of " the West" — Need of 
missionary pastors — Pioneers of the Church — Lay readers — Sam- 
uel Gunn — His early years — Labors — Removal to Ohio — Conse- 
cration of Bishop Chase — His life — Founds Keny on college — Its 
building — Students — Their missionary excursions — How received 
— Funds for domestic purposes — Jackson Kemper — Bishop Ho- 
bart's canon — His labors amoDgst the Indians — Oneida reserves 
— Eleazar Williams — His history — The bishop's visit. 

The episcopate of Dr. Hobart fulfilled the promise of his 
earlier years. It was that of one who had " purchased to 
himself a good degree" in the lower functions of the minis- 
try, and now entered with " boldness" and faith on the 
discharge of the highest. 

Yet his two first years were years of trial and discour- 
agement. The opposition which had followed his election 
had raised the troubled waters of angry contention, and 
they did not suddenly subside. It may be that his ardent 
spirit rendered such a check needful for one who was thus 
early raised to the seat of government and power. Assur- 
edly it was borne meekly, and yielded for himself and many 
more the good fruits of a disciplined patience. At the close 
of these two years he had lived down this opposition, and 
was able to carry out his plans for the improvement of his 
diocese. These were all aimed in one direction. He de- 
sired to " stir up the gift of God" which he firmly believed 
was " in him ;" and to awaken all around to greater zeal 
and earnestness within the Church. Surrounded as it was 
with sects, with none of those civil distinctions or heredi- 



RISE OF CHURCH SOCIETIES. 229 

tary prepossessions which, in the mother country, tend to 
define its separate form, all depended in America on the 
vigor of its inner life sufficing for its own development. 
This induced him, from the first, to direct the zeal of its 
members to the formation, within their own body, of the 
necessary instruments for home-education, for Christian 
charity, and for missionary enterprise. The Church, he 
maintained, ought to supply to Churchmen the organs for 
these several works of love ; and he never shrunk from the 
responsibility or labor involved in presiding over them. His 
views on these points met at first with some opposition ; 
but justice has since been generally done to their far-sighted 
wisdom. " We award, "^ says the leading paper of the Me- 
thodists in 1835, " to the Episcopalians the priority in the 
defence of church or denominational, in opposition to na- 
tional religious societies. We are informed that Bishop 
Hobart was the first to make a stand. Had others defended 
this plan with constancy, firmness and discretion, the gene- 
ral Church of God in this country would have been in a 
much better state." 

The effect of the system in Kew-York was evident. It 
gathered round the Bishop a band of laymen who felt and 
acted on the truth that they were indeed one body, of a 
fixed form, and with spiritual powers which the Lord 
Himself had marked out and imparted. Nowhere was 
such a principle more requisite than in the disunited society 
of democratical America ; and here it produced its natural 
results- The more vigorous life which was awakening 
was visible on all sides ; one measure of its increase is in- 
cidentally supplied by the wider circulation of the Book of 
Common Prayer. Though in 1815 the tide had already 
turned, only 500 copies were issued from the depository, 
whilst within two years the sale had risen to 223 9. t 

But with this attention to the organic frame-work of 
the body over which it was his province to preside, the 
bishop joined a watchful care over the secret fountains of 
its hidden life. On laity and clergy he pressed, by precept 
and example, the supreme importance of a truly spiritual 

* Quoted in Dr. M'Vickars Life, p. 383. 
t Dr. M'Vickar's Life, p. 387. 



230 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

religion. In answering the solicitations of affection, which 
would have persuaded him to lessen his own labors, he 
revealed the spring of all his conduct. " How," said he, 
"can I do too much for that compassionate Saviour who 
has done so much for me."* He reminded his convention! 
that but little satisfaction could be gathered " from the in- 
creasing attachment to their distinctive principles and 
veneration for their institutions.'' unless with it were seen 
"an increase of evangelical piety." His clergy he contin- 
ually urged " to exert with prudence, fidelity, and zeal, all 
their talents and attainments hi the service of their divine 
Lord and of the Church which He purchased with His 
blood," reminding them that "the spirit of the ministry 
must still be formed in retirement, by study, meditation, 
and prayer. "$ He cautioned them as plainly against any 
inclination towards " the gorgeous and unhallowed structure 
of the papal hierarchy/ 1 on the one side, as against " the 
tumults of schism on the other." He had no shrinking 
from the title Protestant, and was wholly free from the 
temper which confounds the maintenance of Church-prin- 
ciples with a secret inclination towards the Romish com- 
munion. "God forbid." was his own declaration,^ "that 
I should say aught against the right of private judgment 
in matters of religion when properly exercised. The doc- 
trine that every man, being individually responsible to his 
Maker, and Judge, must, in all those concerns that affect 
his spiritual and eternal welfare, act according to the dictates 
of his conscience, is that cardinal principle of the Protestant 
faith which should be most soundly guarded." And these 
words came to them from lips they learned to love. He was 
their friend and their counsellor. To him they turned nat- 
urally in sorrow, need or difficulty : and they found liim 
always ready to bear gladly the burden which " came upon 
him daily, the care of all the churches." 

Thus all his visitations told upon them : and with the 
trees which he loved to plant around the scattered par- 
sonage, and which ever afterwards spoke to them of their 

* Dr. M'Viekar's Life, p. 568. 

t Address to the Convention, |814. . 

% Dr. M'Viekar's Life, p. 339. § Berrian's Memoir, p. 226. 



GENERAL PROGRESS. 231 

bishop's presence and care even for these outer things, 
there were sowed in many hearts the seeds of better and 
more enduring produce. Few came thus into his company 
without receiving some impression ; all felt his influence ; 
— from the acute lawyer of the city who watched his 
public conduct, to the Presbyterian farmer of the back- 
woods, who declared,^ " I at first felt a little afraid of your 
bishop that you brought to my house ; but I soon got over 
it, for he is the cleverest man I ever saw in my life. He 
is no more of a gentleman than I am." 

Under the rule of such a man we should expect to 
meet with evident improvement : nor will such hopes be 
disappointed. The internal progress of the diocese may 
be marked in the returns of 1835, five years after Bishop 
Hobarfs death. In that year there were reported 2626 
baptisms, 10.630 communicants, 198 clergymen, 215 
parishes, and 8 new churches consecrated. The total 
amount of funds raised for religious objects, besides the 
salaries of clergymen, amounted to 13.500/. The report 
of two years later shows a still continuing progress. The 
clergy then were 239, and 55 were candidates for holy 
orders; the parish churches had increased to 232, and 16 
new consecrations had marked the past year ; whilst the 
fund for the support of the Episcopate had risen to 22.890/., 
a sum which made it thenceforth possible to set the bishop 
free from any direct pastoral charge. f 

By a blessed law of the new kingdom, this internal 
vigor could not wholly spend itself within ; it must bear 
some good fruit on every side ; the welling fountain must 
water other lands ; and the history of the whole Church 
bears many marks of the change we have been tracing. 
It may be discerned in all directions. There was a con- 
tinual increase in the numbers of the Episcopate: in 1812 
Dr. Dehon, one of the purest and gentlest spirits ever sepa- 
rated to that work, was consecrated Bishop of South Caro- 
lina : in 1814. as we have seen, after a vacancy of two 
years, Virginia found in the consecration of Bishop Richard 
Moore the first means of her spiritual revival, and the dis- 

* Dr. M'Viekar's Life, p. 438. f Caswall's America, p. 151. 



232 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

puted see of Maryland was filled by Dr. Kemp ; whilst in 
that year the extension of the Episcopate into the wide 
regions of the west first engaged the care of the general 
convention. But three years before, there had been, be- 
sides Bishop Provoost retired, and Bishop Moore disabled 
from infirmity, only six acting bishops for the sees of Con- 
necticut, Pennsylvania, New- York, Virginia, Maryland, 
and the Eastern diocese. Within these sees there were, in 
Connecticut thirty clergy, twenty in Pennsylvania, in 
New- York forty-four, in Virginia fifty, five in Maryland, 
and in the Eastern diocese^ fifteen : in all, one hundred 
and ninety- four. f But since this time a change had passed 
over the body : its members had begun to understand their 
own position ; higher and more intelligible ground was oc- 
cupied ; their claim to the true succession frem the Apos- 
tles of the Lord, and the need of such a warrant for His 
ministers, had been heard, discussed, and remained unre- 
futed in that land of sects ; the hearts of many turned to- 
wards it from the confusion and weariness of endless self- 
multiplying division ; its clergy now numbered two hundred 
and forty, and were so rapidly increasing that they were 
quadrupled within the next twenty-four years ; the vacant 
seats of the bishops were filled up. In 1815 New Jersey 
received in Dr. Croes her first spiritual head ; in 1818 Dr. 
N. Bo wen succeeded Bishop Dehon, who had been already 
taken to his rest ; and in the following year Dr. Brownell 
supplied the vacancy of Bishop Jar vis ; whilst the first 
mitre of " the "West" was placed upon the manly and en- 
during brow of Philander Chase. 

The life of this prelate brings under our notice a pecu- 
liar feature of the Church in America. In the large towns 
and settled districts of the north and east its growth and 
increase cannot differ widely from that which we see 
amongst ourselves, — it is opposed by the same difficulties 
— it has to subdue them with the same arms. But in the 
wide wilderness which stretches far behind the settled dis- 
tricts of America, it pursues its work of mercy under new 

* Composed of Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, and 
New Hampshire. 

f CaswalFs America, p. 186. 



THE WESTERN WILDERNESS. 233 

and pecular conditions. These we must survey more 
closely, or in this long-settled country we shall never 
understand how little, without constant domestic missions, 
the cause of Christ can spread abroad throughout that 
land. 

At this time^ in America the tide of civilized life had 
flowed but a very little westward. Along the sea-coast and 
near the mouths of the great rivers the white men had 
long been settled, great cities had grown up, busy multi- 
tudes thronged the streets', every acre was possessed and 
cultivated, and there was little left to show that two cen- 
turies before, large forests, where the axe had never rung, 
had darkened all this coast, amidst the glades of which 
the cunning Indian hunter might be seen stealthily pursu- 
ing his game. But on leaving the sea-board the scene 
soon changed ; the settlers became fewer and fewer ; after 
a time even the backwood farmer disappeared ; the roads 
abruptly ended ; the traveller got amongst clearings, where 
the axe had but just begun its work ; and where the stumps 
of the giants of the forest still stood in their native soil, 
though mutilated by the strong arm which had felled their 
glory, or charred by the fire which had been brought in aid 
of man for their destruction. Here was found the squatter 
and his family, who had come forth from civilised society, 
taken up their abode in this far wilderness, cleared the tim- 
ber, acquired the soil by their own labor, built their log 
hut, and now with the rifle, which they well knew how to 
use, provided themselves with food, and maintained against 
all intruders their title to their " clearing." Beyond these 
again lay the great forest, with its uniform dark frowning 
front, its carpet of leaves, its endless shadows, its game, 
and its red hunters. 

In the ranks of those who made up this advanced guard 

* This account is mainly taken from the interesting work of the 
Rev. Henry Caswall, M. A., by birth an Englishman, and now a 
curate in the English diocese of Salisbury, but lately rector of Christ 
Church, Madison, Indiana, and some time professor in the theological 
seminary of the diocese of Kentucky, — to whose published volume, 
and private assistance, the author begs, once for all, to record here 
his deep obligations. 



234 AMERICAN CHTJR,CH. 

of civilized society were persons of every condition and 
character. Amongst them were some who found it conve- 
nient to fly from the punishment threatened by the taws 
which they had broken ; others who had contracted debts, 
from the liability of which they were hopeless of otherwise 
escaping ; whilst the number was completed by men of en- 
terprising spirits or of restless tempers, who found or ex- 
pected to find in the west an easier provision for themselves 
and their families than had fallen to their lot amongst the 
contentions and competitions of more populous districts. 
This tide was ever rising, and the black line of the forest 
receded farther and farther as it advanced. The squatter 
found himself disturbed by neighbors, his wild independence 
was straitened, and his rifle yielded less for his support ; he 
began to crave after the forest stillness ; and having sold 
his clearing to some farmer, who, having a little more capi- 
tal and a little less enterprise, was willing to enter into the 
fruit of his labors, he shouldered his axe anew and cast 
himself upon the pathless forest. Thus year by year, and 
almost day by day, the stream of population flowed on ; 
the stragglers multiplied, log huts grew into villages, and be- 
fore the charred stumps were rotted in the ground, streets 
and towns had grown up round them, and man with all 
the multitude of his inventions was there. But amongst 
those many inventions Christianity was too often forgotten. 
The mass of such men brought little of it with them, and 
that little was soon lost. jN"o existing ministry pressed upon 
them the truths of the unseen world ; no village-bells re- 
minded them of worship and of praise ; no ancient spire 
pointed with its silent finger towards the heaven above 
them. There was for the most part amongst them little 
sense of the needs of a spiritual life : even if the settler were 
not one who in the midst of the means of grace had re- 
sisted God's goodness and hardened his own heart, yet this 
careless outw r ard life pressed always upon him. It was 
all too natural that the making provision for the other life 
should be postponed until a time of more leisure or greater 
competence. Thus the last remaining impress of Chris- 
tianity was worn off, and the children trained in such 
scenes grew up as heathens, with no faith in Christ or fear 



SAMUEL GUNN. 235 

of God — unbaptised at birth, and unnurtured from the 
cradle. Or if there still lingered on amongst these wild 
men some resemblance of Christianity, or if yearnings after 
better things sprung ivd within their hearts, still the Church 
was not amongst them to seize on and turn to lasting profit 
the precious opportunity. Sacraments they had none; 
ministers of God, "witnesses for Christ, how should these be 
found in these far wilds ? They were not : and so the rude 
settler must become his own priest ; and this, which was 
far the best state of things, nourished the seeds of indepen- 
dence : and the religion which sprung up was as when 
men cast seeds into uncultivated lands, — they grow up, but 
degenerate, and the ears become thinner, and the fruit be- 
comes scantier, until its first type is almost lost, and it 
can scarcely be discerned from one of the wild plants around 
it. 

It was in looking on these evils, which were ripening in 
the western parts of his own diocese of Xew-York, that the 
heart of Bishop Hobart was stirred up, and he pressed upon 
the Church the need of sending forth as of old her army of 
missionary teachers, who should plant hi these young lands, 
and minister amongst these growing tribes, the knowledge 
of Christ and the sacraments of His grace. His words were 
heard — the work was undertaken — and it prospered in their 
hands . Various were the instruments employed, as God bless- 
ed the feeble beginning ; but the work was soon proceeding. 
The pioneer of these labors was often the humble lay 
reader, "who prepared the way for the feet of Christ's am- 
bassadors. 

In the life of such a laborer we shall trace the progress 
of the fertilising stream. Samuel Gunn^ was one of these. 
He was born in Connecticut in 1763, and baptised by one 
of the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts. His early youth was unharm- 
ed by the dangers and temptations of the war of indepen- 
dence, and he was amongst the first who presented them- 
selves to receive from Bishop Seabury the blessing of con- 
firmation. His blameless character and holy life reconi- 

* See Gasman's America and American Church. 



236 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

mended him to the notice of the good bishop, who watched 
with apostolic zeal over the risings of chastened piety within 
his infant diocese ; and as the parish in which he was set- 
tled was without a clergyman, Samuel Gunn was appoint- 
ed lay reader to a small band of devout Christians who 
met there to worship God according to the order of the 
Church liturgy. Now and then a clergyman visited the 
district, and administered amongst them the especial rites 
of our religion ; but for the most part, during ten or twelve 
years, they depended chiefly on Samuel Gunn. 

At the end of this period, his family having increased, 
and the soil of Connecticut, naturally somewhat barren, 
and now much exhausted, not affording them the means 
of living, he determined to move westward. He settled in 
the outskirts of the state of New- York, amidst a population 
made up of moving emigrants. Amongst them he resum- 
ed his office of lay reader, until he had gathered together 
so many that they formed themselves into a parish, and 
obtained the ministrations of a settled clergyman. 

For twelve years he was now stationary ; but in the 
autumn of 1805, finding difficulties gather round him, he 
determined on a new emigration ; and after paying every 
debt he had contracted, set off again with all belonging to 
him for the farther west, As he journeyed, one of the 
sorrows of the early settler fell on him ; he lost a child by 
a sudden and violent death, and had himself to dig its 
grave and leave in the silence of the leafy forest the moul- 
dering dust which should one day hear the voice of the Son 
of God, and rise like the long-buried seed out of its place 
to light and life. In the month of November he reached 
the banks of the Ohio river, then a wild and comparatively 
un visited stream ; and embarking on a sort of raft-boat, he 
floated with his family and goods down the stream unti] 
he came to the neighborhood of a small settlement of ten 
or twelve houses, which seemed suited to his purpose. 

Here he settled ; and the voice of prayer and praise in 
the language of the liturgy was soon afterwards heard on 
the banks of the Ohio. For years his own family formed 
all his congregation ; but at length a band was gathered 
out of the village of Portsmouth, who united with him in 



SAMUEL GUNN. 237 

his holy worship. In the course of the year 1819, he 
heard that the state in which he was settled (Ohio) had 
been regularly formed into a diocese, and that a bishop 
had been elected and consecrated. The heart of the pious 
Churchman was filled with hope and joy at this announce- 
ment ; and these feelings were soon afterwards increased 
by his learning that his new bishop was no stranger to him, 
but one whom as a missionary he had frequently received 
under his humble roof whilst he acted as lay reader in the 
western wilds of New- York. As soon as Gunn knew that 
he was in a regularly formed diocese, he desired to put 
himself under the direction of its head ; and he wrote ac- 
cordingly to his bishop, announcing the state of things hi 
his village of Portsmouth, and pointing out the blessings 
which he thought would now from a visit on the part of 
their chief shepherd. For a time the bishop could not 
himself act upon this call; but he sent at once a clergyman 
to refresh with the consolations of the Gospel those spirits 
which were fainting in the desert. In about a month the 
bishop himself arrived. The ground was not fully preoc- 
cupied by any existing sect ; Gumi's labors had removed 
some prejudice, and excited some attention, and curiosity 
as well as better feelings were at work ; so that when the 
court-house of the village was made ready for the bishop's 
use, numbers flocked to hear him. His simple earnest 
piety deeply impressed the congregation ; and he did not 
leave the village until he had organised a parish, of which 
Gunn was elected senior warden, and to which, under the 
bishop's authority, he ministered as lay reader until it was 
possible to send a clergyman amongst them. His labors 
were assisted by the discovery of a set of Prayer-books in 
the village "store." These, which had long slept as un- 
saleable commodities, were now in such request, that (mo- 
ney-payments being rare in those back settlements) as 
many as twenty bushels of corn were sometimes given for 
a single copy. 

For three years Gunn kept together the congregation 
by these simple services, though they were years of trial 
and rebuke. Disease, which raged in the village, thinned 
continually the little flock; and when, in 1823, he pro- 



238 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

cured once a month the services of a clergyman, who came 
fifty miles to minister amongst them, they were dwindled 
down so low as often to excite the ridicule of the profane. 
But few as they were, the seed of life was amongst them, and 
it only needed the fostering presence of the Church's ordin- 
ances to spring up and he seen openly. In 1831 they set 
apart and fitted up a room in which to worship God accord- 
ing to the manner of their fathers ; and in this year the aged 
lay reader rejoiced to hand over his work to an ordained 
minister,* who was at length settled amongst them. 

But all the good man's work was not yet done. He 
had to show that he could suffer patiently, as well as labor 
zealously. Within a few weeks of yielding up his charge, 
a violent accident, which at first threatened his life, de- 
prived him of the sight of one eye, and enfeebled his health 
ever afterwards. One service more was left him to per- 
form. In the winter following his accident he called to- 
gether his neighbors and friends, and earnestly urged them 
to erect a church in which they might together worship 
God. He ended his address by saying ; " You know, my 
friends, that I am not rich, and that twice I have lost my 
all. Yet Providence has given me enough, and my pro- 
perty is now worth a little more than two thousand dollars ; 
of this I will give one-third towards the erection of the 
proposed edifice, on condition that you will contribute the 
remainder of the necessary amount." 

It was well for him, as for David of old, that " it was 
in his heart to build a house for the Lord his God ;" but 
the good man lived not to worship in it, or even to lay its 
corner-stone. Before that time came, his warfare was 
accomplished, and he was received by the Master whom 
he had so long and so faithfully served into the bright and 
blessed rest of Paradise. 

Such are the labors of the humbler pioneers of the 
Church in America ; and the life of the bishop who thus 
followed one of them into the wilderness will illustrate that 
of her missionary clergy. Dr. Philander Chase, then just 

* The Pvey. H. Caswall, from whose work this whole account is 
taken. 



EARLY LIFE OF PHILANDER CHASE. 239 

appointed Bishop of Ohio, was born in December 1775,^ 
on the high banks of Connecticut river, a few miles north 
of Charlestown, which was then the extreme verge of the 
settled country. The American founder of his race, Aquila 
Chase, a native of Cornwall hi England, settled with his 
wife and family, in the seventeenth century, at Newbury 
in Massachusetts. Like all their neighbors, they were In- 
dependent Congregationalists, and like very many of them, 
they were truly right-minded godly people. To their de- 
scendants after them they handed on their religious creed 
and their personal piety ;t and Philander Chase was born 
of parents who had first ventured amidst the shadows of 
the mighty forest, supported only by their own stout hearts, 
and an unshaken confidence in their covenant God. The 
youngest of fourteen children, most of whom had left their 
father's tent hi the forest for the various walks of busy life, 
Philander's early aspirations pointed to the patriarchal life, 
of which the grey-haired man before him was so encourag- 
ing an instance. He would close that father's eyes, and 
inherit the home-farm his hands had formed out of the 
forest. 

But God had destined him for greater things ; and 
severe sufferings, first from a maimed and then from a 
broken limb, were His messengers of good to the young 
farmer. During his son's long confinement the old man 
watched by his sleepless bed, and read to him the writing 
of the hand which had thus come forth for him upon the 
wall ; "By these sufferings God was calling to Himself His 
destined servant ; college life and the service of the minis- 
try were plainly his appointed sphere." 

To college accordingly he went ; and falling hi there 

* Reminiscences of Bishop Chase, by himself, passim. 

f The family-records give a passing picture of Puritan life amongst 
the pilgrims of Massachusetts, in recording that Capt. Aquila Chase, 
a leading man amongst them, was brought to trial because on his 
reaching home, from a long voyage, on Sunday morning, his wife 
had gathered and dressed her first dish of green peas to welcome 
him. It was in vain that he pleaded the danger of scurvy and ne- 
cessities of health ; the utmost favor he received was, to escape the 
infliction of "forty-stripes-save -one" by the payment of a heavy 
fine. 



240 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

with the Common Prayer-Book, he was won over by its 
holy tone, and its exhibition of " the authenticated claims"* 
of the Episcopal ministry to an apostolic commission ; and 
he returned to the farm upon the Connecticut, to lead back 
his aged father into the Church from which he and his 
had been so long estranged. By their own hands and with 
entire harmony of feeling, the meeting-house, where his 
father and his grandfather had officiated as congregational 
deacons, was pulled down, and a church erected in its 
stead. Here they welcomed the occasional visits of dis- 
tant clergy ; and here, in their absence, and under their 
direction, Philander Chase read, as a layman, prayers and 
sermons. 

He was now twenty years of age, and his heart was 
set upon the labors of the ministry. But how to obtainordi- 
nation he knew not. No theological seminaries then shel- 
tered early piety, and fostered such pious resolutions ; no 
bishop was at hand to direct and crown his labors. With 
trembling steps, and all the bashfulness of youth, he set 
out for Albany to obtain help and guidance. " A rebuff 
would have turned his face another way." 

But he met with no such discouragement. He reached 
Albany, and was directed to the house of the " English 
dominie." " Is this the Rev. Mr. Ellison's ?" he asked, 
as the top of a Dutch-built door was opened by a portly 
gentleman in black, with prominent and piercing eyes, and 
powdered hair. Having announced his name and errand, 
he was greeted with a " God bless you, come hi !" which 
fixed his lot for life. After almost three years of study and 
preparation, he was ordained deacon, in May 1798, by 
Bishop Provoost of New- York. 

His first sphere of labor was in the western parts of 
the diocese of New- York. Here he was employed as a 
domestic missionary upon the outskirts of civilized life. 
Over that district, where within a few years afterwards 
large and prosperous towns abounded, the mighty forest 
then stretched, and its only inhabitants were the emigrant 
villagers who were busy in settling these outposts of so- 

* Bishop Chase's Reminiscences. 



FIRST LABORS OF PHILANDER CHASE. 241 

ciety. Amongst them the young evangelist labored with 
his whole heart, thinking nothing of the many toils and 
privations which such a mode of life entailed. With these 
he was soon familiar. As he travelled to his own sphere 
of labor, he fell in with a brother missionary, afterwards 
know T n and highly honored. He was living in " a cabin 
built of unhewn logs, with scarcely a pane of glass to let 
in light sufficient to read his Bible ; and even this was 
not his own, nor long allowed for his use." Chase arrived 
at the moment of such a dispossession, and assisted him to 
carry his articles of crockery to a new abode, " holding one 
handle of the basket as they walked the road, talking of 
the things pertaining to the kingdom of G-od," whilst they 
bore all his substance into the little one-roomed cabin, the 
rude door of which hung creaking on its wooden hinges. 
This man was " the founder of the Church in the Otsego 
country :" and it was at the cost of such self-denial that 
the Gospel was planted in the west. 

Into these labors Chase entered heartily; and as his 
work was greatly blessed by G-od, he had the joy of seeing 
several flourishing congregations gathered by his hands 
into settled parishes. In this neighborhood he remained 
some years, until the need of a milder climate for his wife 
sent him southward, and, at the advice of his bishop, he 
settled at New Orleans, near the delta of the Mississippi 
river. Here, where no minister of the reformed com- 
munion had yet appeared, he formed another parish ; and, 
after six years' labor, returned to New England, and was, 
for six more, rector of a church at Hartford in Connecticut. 
In this parish he was greatly beloved : but, amidst all the 
enjoyments of civilized society, his thoughts would often 
wander to the desolate districts of the West ; to the lonely 
" clearing," and to the growing villages where the name 
of Christ was daily more and more forgotten ; he thought 
upon his own labors in time past until his heart yearned 
to be again employed in that high and holy enterprise ; and 
accordingly, in IS 17, he set out once more upon his mis- 
sionary work. 

Since the days of his former labors hi the back districts 
of New-York, the mighty tide of civilized life had swept 
11 



242 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

on far to the west. His former desolate stations were now 
populous towns, and the early seed which he had scattered 
in the waste had ripened into a harvest ; for through his 
labors, the institutions and influence of Christianity had 
healed the spring-head of social life amongst the earliest 
settlers before they had swelled into an irreligious multi- 
tude. 

As he retraced his steps over his old sphere of duty, 
he marked the changes, which he thus records : — " I re- 
member these busy villages one dreary salt marsh ; except 
two or three cabins for boiling salt — most unsightly and 
uncomfortable, because only tenanted in winter — there 
were no appearances of civilized men."* "Where," he 
asked of one of his old flock, " was the cabin in which I 
baptised your family ?" "I will show you," said he, taking 
his hat and a great key; " but we must stop at the church 
as we go along." And so they did. There it stood where 
the tall tree so lately occupied the ground. It was a beau- 
tiful, well-finished edifice. " This is the tree which you 
planted; may it bear fruit acceptable to the heavenly 
Husbandman !" The site of the old cabin was found occu- 
pied by the "bustle of business; coaches passing, ware- 
houses on each side lofty and well supplied, streets paved, 
and sidewalks flagged." Such is the rapid upgrowth of 
civilized life in the ancient domain of the western forest. 

To the difficulties and the blessing of planting the 
Church in the waste, the heart of Chase was still drawn, 
and he sought, therefore, his new field of labor in yet re- 
moter districts. He passed on to the state of Ohio, where 
the straggling villages of the distant settler were beginning 
to stud the long unbroken forest. All his soul was in his 
work, and again he was greatly prospered hi it. One by 
one other clergymen came to his aid ; parishes were formed ; 
and in the very year after his coming amongst them, the 
new diocese of Ohio was organized. At its second diocesan 
convention, he who had brought to them the message of 
salvation was, by the votes of both laity and clergy, elected 
as their bishop. In February 1819 he was consecrated in 

* Bishop Chase's Reminiscences, voL i. p. 53, 



LABORS OF BISHOP CHASE. 243 

the town of Philadelphia by the good old Bishop White, 
assisted by Bishops Hobart, Kemp, and Croes, and entered 
directly on his work. Anxiously did the new bishop watch 
over his rising diocese ; he was still in heart what he had 
ever been ; and though now a ruler of Christ's Church, he 
was, as of old, a devoted missionary, constantly engaged 
in seeking to carry on, in every direction, the work in which 
he had so diligently labored. 

In effecting this he spared himself no exertion. His 
diocesan labors involved " vast distances of journeyings on 
horseback, under the burning sun and pelting rain, through 
the mud and amid the beech-roots, over log bridges and 
through swollen streams." It was no wonder that he 
reached the end of his circuit of " 1279 miles on horseback 
with his constitution impaired and his voice almost gone."^ 
Fresh cares met him at the threshold of his home. " Three 
parishes were to be supplied," (lay readers being often his 
only substitute during his necessary absence,) " two of them 
nearly fifteen miles distant from his residence." In spite 
of close economy, there was within doors " but a poor pros- 
pect for the coming winter ;" with a sickly wife, and this 
press of Episcopal and pastoral care, " there was not a 
dollar left, after satisfying the hired man for the past, 
wherewithal to engage him for the future ; and as for the 
making promises when there was no prospect of making 
payment, such had ever been regarded as a sin. The hired 
man was then, from a principle of duty, discharged. The 
result was inevitable ;" the bishop " must do what the 
man would, if retained, have done ; i. e. thrash the grain, 
haul and cut the w T ood, build the fires, and feed the stock." 

With such anxieties would mingle doubts whether 
he had done rightly in accepting the arduous trust of 
such an episcopate. But these dark clouds seldom set- 
tled on his mind. They are commonly dispersed by ac- 
tive exertion, and Bishop Chase was always active, 
Wherever an opening appeared, he was ready to attend, to 
show the fair front of the Church's goodly order, and plant 
the standard of his Master ; and for this work his zeal and 
earnestness fitted him remarkably. 

* Bishop Chase's Reminiscences, p. 192. 



244 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

His journey, at the call of Samuel G-unn, is an exam- 
ple of his labors ; for such calls were continually arising. 
In these cases the ground was happily prepared, and the 
bishop's main w T ork was to foster the weak beginnings of the 
apostolical communion, and to provide pastors for its min- 
istry. But he did not confine himself to these more favor- 
ed spots ; all through his diocese, wherever the flow of civi- 
lised life carried the settler from the means of grace, there 
was turned the attention of the bishop, and there, if it was 
possible, was soon seen his fatherly presence. In the year 
1820 these objects took him on horseback through his dio- 
cese (carriage-roads not having yet been made), a distance 
of almost 1300 miles. 

But all his personal energy could not supply the want 
of instruments. To " ordain elders in every district" was 
his earnest desire. To commit the flock to a regular min- 
istry, who should daily cement and carry on to perfectness 
the goodly building, the foundations of which he, as a wise 
master-builder, had laid, — this was the longing of Bishop 
Chase's heart. The want was pressing and weighed like 
a heavy burden on his soul. He saw "the whole com- 
munity of those western settlements sinking fast in igno- 
rance and its never-failing attendants, vice and fanaticism. 
" Our own Church," he declares, " is like a discomfited 
army seeking for strange food in forbidden fields, or sitting 
in solitary groups by the way-side fainting, famishing, and 
dying. . , . , No missionaries make their appearance. . . 
Those who transiently visit us pass like meteors, leaving 
behind little or no salutary effect."^ Fixed and settled 
pastors were what the people required. 

But the work of the ministry amongst the wild and 
straggling settlers of the West required peculiar gifts and 
habits. Clergy who had been accustomed to labor in more 
civilised districts were in a great measure unfitted for the 
charge ; and the bishop saw, therefore, the necessity of 
founding a college in his own diocese to prepare proper in- 
struments for this peculiar service. He laid his plans be- 
fore his diocesan convention, and with their concurrence 

* Reminiscences. 



bishop chase's college. 245 

resolved to visit England, and collect subscriptions for the 
endowment of his college. In urging his cause here, he 
had not only the general claim of spiritual relationship to 
which the Church of the mother country has ever gladly 
answered, hut a further title to assistance in the fact, that 
about one-third of all the population of his diocese were 
British emigrants. Difficulties of various kinds opposed his 
resolution. He left behind him a dying son ; his resources 
would not prudently warrant the excursion ; and the bulk 
of Churchmen east of the Alleghany mountains discouraged, 
whilst some openly opposed, his undertaking. All this 
made his heart ache, but it could not turn back his steps. 
After appointing a day for fasting and prayer in his own 
diocese, and seeking the intercession of the Church through- 
out the west, he sailed for England in October 1823; and 
there, after bravely making head for a season against a re- 
petition of the same difficulties which had often met him 
in America, he collected more than six thousand pounds 
for his noble object. This enabled him, on his return, to 
purchase 8000 acres of good land, and begin to build a col- 
lege and village, to which, in remembrance of two of his 
most active friends in England, he gave respectively the 
names of Kenyon and Gambier. 

In erecting these all the bishop's energy of character was 
seen. Not content with undertaking the office of post-master, 
that he might have the privilege of franking the multitude 
of letters which his enterprise required him to circulate, he 
acted as chief builder also. " He rises, "* says his friend 
and coadjutor, " at three every morning, and is engaged 
till night in superintending the workmen on the college 
buildings." The results were commensurate with these 
exertions. The college was soon in full operation. " With- 
in two years from the time when the lowest story was yet 
incomplete, and tall trees covered the face of the ground, 
whilst the students occupied temporary wooden houses, in 
which the frost of winter and the heat of summer alter- 
nately predominated, and the laborious bishop inhabited a 
cabin of rough logs, the interstices of which were filled with 

* America and the American Church, p. 26. 



246 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

clay, — the massive stone walls of the college, four feet thick 
and four stories in height, lifted themselves almost to the 
elevation of the surrounding woods, and a tall steeple indi- 
cated its situation to the distant wanderer." Around it 
also all was changed. The clearing had proceeded rapidly ; 
" several hundred acres of rich land supplied grain in abun- 
dance, and pasture for numerous cattle. A printer inhab- 
ited the bishop's former domicile, and published a religious 
newspaper, denominated the ' Garnbier Observer ;' while the 
students were in part provided with commodious dwellings, 
and in part supplied with lodgings in the college beneath 
the same roof with the bishop and the professors." 

Of these students, many were destined for the different 
walks of ordinary life ; but a considerable number also 
were here trained, under the bishop's eye, for the peculiar 
services of a far-western clergyman. To these they were 
here accustomed even during the time of their college life ; 
and they therefore entered upon the discharge of their 
ministry with the habits already formed which they after- 
wards needed. They maintained Sunday-schools, and in 
other ways supplied the religious wants of the settlers 
within a circuit of some miles around the college. We 
may follow one of thern^ in his accustomed labors. " We 
rise early (on a summer morning), and sally forth with a 
few books and some frugal provision for the day. We pro- 
ceed about half a mile through the noble aboriginal forest, 
the tall and straight trees appearing like pillars in a vast 
Gothic cathedral. The timber consists of oak, hickory, 
sugar-maple, sycamore, walnut, poplar, and chesnut, and 
the wild vine hangs from the branches in graceful festoons. 
Occasionally we hear the song of birds, but less frequently 
than in England. Generally deep silence prevails, and 
prepares the mind for serious contemplation. We soon 
arrive at a small clearing, where a cabin built of rough 
logs indicates the residence of a family. Around the cabin 
are several acres upon which gigantic trees are yet stand- 
ing, but perfectly deadened by the operation called ' gird- 
ling.' Their bark has chiefly fallen off, and the gaunt 

* America and the American Church, p. 35, &c. 



KENYON COLLEGE STUDENTS. 247 

white limbs appear dreary, though majestic in decay. 
Upon the abundant grass which has sprung up since the 
rays of the sun were admitted to the soil, a number of 
cattle are feeding, and the tinkling of their bells is almost 
the only sound which strikes the ear. We climb over the 
fence of split rails piled in a zigzag form, cross the pasture, 
and are again in the deep forest. The surface of the ground 
is of an undulating character, while our pathway carries 
us by a log-hut surrounded by a small clearing. After an 
hour we arrive at a rudely constructed saw-mill erected on 
a small stream of water. The miller is seated at his cabin- 
door in his Sunday clothes, and is reading a religious book 
which we have lent him before. We now talk to him ; 
his interest in the Church is growing, and he offers us his 
horse for our future expeditions ; we accept it, and proceed 
with its assistance on our course. After another hour we 
reach a village of log-cottages, at the end of which is a 
schoolroom, around which a temporary arbor is constructed, 
covered with fresh boughs. In this the children of the 
neighbors soon gather round us, and with them often come 
their friends and parents. When a goodly company is 
thus assembled, a hymn is given out and sung ; then all 
kneel for prayer, and a large portion of the Church-service 
is repeated from memory, from a tender regard to the pre- 
judices of many who, until they have learned a better 
lesson, would turn away if they were told that they listened 
to the Church's voice. Then, under the sanction of the 
bishop, a few words of exhortation are added where the 
student is a candidate for holy orders. We then instruct 
the children, and, having finished this, set out upon our 
journey homeward." 

The reception of these messengers of peace was widely 
various. In all cases, indeed, they appear to have received 
from the settlers that hospitality which is the uniform ac- 
companiment of imperfect civilization. But while they 
were welcomed by some as spiritual guides, by others they 
and their objects were looked at with the most watchful 
suspicion. Thus one backwood farmer received gladly the 
wandering students, and lavished upon their reception all 
the stores of his rude hospitality ; but when he found that 



248 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tliey were inhabitants of Gambier, and emissaries of Ken- 
yon College, his countenance fell, and, with, the sincerity 
of a backwood freeman, he at once expressed his apprehen- 
sions of such visitants.^ " I have fought the British," he 
told them, " in the revolutionary war, arid I have again 
encountered them in the last war, and I know something 
of their character. I know that they would not contribute 
so many thousand pounds to build a college in Ohio with- 
out some sinister object. I am, therefore, convinced that 
Bishop Chase is an agent employed by them to introduce 
British domination here. The college is, in fact, a fortress ; 
all you students are British soldiers in disguise ; and when 
you think you have the opportunity, you will throw off the 
mask and proclaim the King of England." No explana- 
tion or assurance could dispel the scruples of the old man, 
who was a Calvinistic Anabaptist in religion, and proba- 
bly a fiery democrat in politics. 

At other times, this is the narrative of their reception : 
" "We have scarcely left the village, when a blacksmith 
runs after us and requests us to stop. He tells us that he 
has felt deeply interested in the services, that he desires 
more information, and that he wishes us always to dine 
with him on Sundays in future. We accordingly return to 
his cabin ; and his wife sets before us a plentiful repast of 
chickens, potatoes, hot bread, apple-pies, and milk. After 
some profitable conversation we depart, and at about three 
o'clock arrive at the miller's house, almost overcome by 
the excessive heat. When we have somewhat recovered 
from our fatigue, we proceed to a spot on the banks of the 
stream where the grass is smooth and the thick foliage 
produces a comparative coolness. Here we find about one 
hundred persons collected in the hope of receiving from us 
some religious instruction. We conduct the service much 
in the same way as in the morning. The effect of the 
singing in the open air is striking and peculiar ; and the 
prayers of our liturgy are no less sublime in the forests of 
Ohio than in the consecrated and time-honored minsters 
of York or C anterbury . " t 

* CaswalTs America and the American Church, p. 45. 
f America and the American Church, p. 38. 



KENYON COLLEGE STUDENTS. 249 

In such natural sanctuaries are sometimes celebrated 
all the rites of our most holy faith. One such in Delaware 
County, Ohio, is thus described by an eye-witness : " The 
place of worship was a beautiful orchard, where the 
abundant blossoms of the apple and the peach filled the 
air with their delicious odor. A table for the Communion 
was placed on the green grass, and covered with a cloth 
of snowy whiteness. Adjoining the rustic altar, a little 
stand was erected for the clergyman, and a number of 
benches were provided for the congregation. A large 
number attended, and behaved with the strictest propriety. 
Besides the service for the day, baptism was administered 
by the missionary to three or four adults, a stirring extem- 
pore sermon was delivered, and the Lord's Supper comple- 
ted the solemnities."* 

But to return to our Kenyon College students, whom 
we must follow home : " The service concluded, we return 
on foot ; and as we approach the college with weary steps, 
the flre-fiies glisten in the increasing darkness. We arrive 
at our rooms fatigued in body, but refreshed in mind, and 
encouraged to new efforts." 

By such exertions as these the Church was widely 
spread throughout the West. From them the sound of the 
Gospel reached the settler's family ; by them, under God's 
blessing, was formed first the struggling parish, and after- 
wards the ill-endowed but laborious diocese, extending over 
its fifty thousand square miles, and carrying into the waste 
the germ of civilization and of order, 

The want of funds proved the great hindrance to these 
domestic missions. Years must commonly pass before the 
spiritual laborer saw gathered round him a flock sufficient 
to maintain him in his work. This, therefore, was one 
great demand of Christian charity, and efforts were made 
in various places to respond to it. Thus in Philadelphia, 
as early as 1812, there was a movement in this direction, 
begun by the zeal and earnestness of Jackson Kemper, then 
a deacon there. In New- York also, which was soon to be 
the centre of the Christian charity of North America, 

* America and the American Church, p. 286. 
11* 



250 AMERICAN CHUItCH. 

Bishop Hobart took, in 1813, an important step in the 
same cause. He proposed and carried through a canon 
which made it imperative on every congregation in the 
diocese once a year to collect funds for this specific object. 
This was the begimiing of great things. The cause grew 
under his hand, and the noble aspect it assumed a few 
years later may be traced to this as its beginning. 

But this was not the only species of domestic missions 
which engaged his attention. There was another race of 
men who had the strongest claims on all Americans ; these 
soon attracted the attention of the Bishop of New- York. 
In surveying the teeming multitudes of European origin 
who now fill the shores of the great western continent, the 
question often recurs sadly to the mind, Where are those 
who were its former tenants ? where are the red men, to 
whom the God of heaven had apportioned out by lot the 
hunting-grounds and forests on whose site now stand the 
busy cities of the West ? The answer is a mournful one 
to every thoughtful mind. Scarcely one of them remains. 
War, treachery, famine, and, above all, diseases of Euro- 
pean growth, have mowed down whole nations of Indians, 
until they are not upon the face of the earth. A few re- 
main ; and as these have rarely become mingled with their 
white invaders, they have been continually beaten back 
farther and farther into the interior, as the tide of civilised 
life gradually rose upon them. 

At length the government of the United States has 
taken upon itself to confer titles to their land, and to remove 
them to certain "reserves, "of which it guarantees to them 
the undisturbed possession. The whole subject must give 
rise to bitter reflections. But this surely is the first question 
which rises on the mind, What has the Church of Christ 
done for this unhappy race ? Has it, according to its char- 
tered rights, received into itself these children of the human 
family, and, by its greater boons of heavenly light and ever- 
lasting life, turned all their other losses into gain ? The 
answer to this question also involves a catalogue of fearful 
facts. It is therefore with peculiar pleasure that we light 
here and there upon plans and efforts devised in the spirit 
of those times when apostles bore to men of every blood 



ELEAZER WILLIAMS. 251 

the message of salvation. To some such, we are led in sur- 
veying the course of Bishop Hobart's episcopate. 

In the year 1815 his attention was called to the condi- 
tion of a portion of the tribe of the Iroquois, distinguished as 
the Oneidas, who, to the number of four thousand, were 
settled on some "reserved" lands known by the name of 
" the Oneida country." His first object was to find a pro- 
per instrument for carrying out amongst them his purposes 
of Christian love. His search was not in vain ; he was 
guided to one of their own blood who had received a Chris- 
tian education, and could speak to them of the name of 
Jesus in the beloved accents of their fathers' tongue. 

The history of Eleazer Williams, whom he now sent to 
them, is full of that romance by which Indian life is so fre- 
quently distinguished. Amongst the last inroads of the 
Indian tribes upon the white men's settlements, was one 
against the frontier village of Deerfield in Connecticut. It 
proved so far successful that the red men returned to their 
trackless forests loaded with all kinds of booty. Amongst 
their various prey they carried off the wife and children of 
the rector of the village, the Rev. Mr. Williams, who was 
absent at the time. He returned home to learn the full 
extent of his calamity ; and with a bleeding heart, set out 
at once to seek for those with whom his life was thus 
bound up. Years passed over him in his fruitless and 
heart-sickening toil ; but still he desisted not until he was 
at last guided to their haunt in the distant prairie. But 
when he had found them, all would not return. One 
daughter of his house had wedded an Indian chief, and she 
refused to leave the land of her adoption. Little could the 
pious father forecast the blessing winch was thus in store 
for his despoilers : for from this marriage sprung, amongst 
others, the son who was now the bearer of the message of 
salvation to his red brethren of the forest. He went forth 
as catechist and schoolmaster, taking with him portions of 
the Gospels and the Psalms, which, through the bishop's 
care, had been translated into their native dialect. 

The blessing of G-od rested on his labors ; and some of 
their fruits may be found marked in the following touching 
words addressed to the bishop three years afterwards, 



252 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

in the name of his brethren, by a young Indian communis 
eant : — - 

" Right Rev. Father, — We salute you in the name of 
the ever-adorable, ever-blessed, and everlasting sovereign 
Lord of the universe ; we acknowledge the great and 
almighty Being as our Creator, Preserver, and constant 
Benefactor. 

" Right Rev. Father, — We rejoice that we now, with 
one heart and mind, would express our gratitute and thanks- 
giving to our great and venerable father for the favor which 
he has bestowed upon this nation, viz., in sending brother 
Williams among us to instruct us in the religion of the 
blessed Jesus. When he first came to us we hailed him 
as our friend, our brother, and our guide in spiritual things, 
and he shall remain in our hearts and minds as long as he 
shall teach us the ways of the great Spirit above. 

" Right Rev. Father, — We rejoice to say, that by send- 
ing brother Williams among us a great light has risen upon 
us ; we see now that the Christian religion is intended for 
the good of the Indians as well as the white people ; we 
see it and do feel it, that the religion of the Gospel will 
make us happy in this and in the world to come. We now 
profess it outwardly, and we hope, by the grace of God, 
that some of us have professed it inwardly. May it ever 
remain in our hearts, and we be enabled by the Spirit of 
the Eternal One to practise the great duties which it points 
out to us. 

"Right Rev. Father, — Agreeable to your request, we 
have treated our brother with that attention and kindness 
which you required of us ; we have assisted him all that 
was in our power as to his support : but you know well 
that we are poor ourselves, and we cannot do a great deal. 
Though our brother has lived very poor since he came 
among us, but he is patient and makes no complaint, we 
pity him, because we love him as we do ourselves. We 
wish to do something for his support, but this is impossible 
for us to do at present, as we have lately raised between 
three and four thousand dollars to enable us to build a 
little chapel. 

" Right Rev. Father, — We entreat and beseech you not 



ADDRESS OF BISHOP HOBART. 253 

to neglect us. We hope the Christian people in New- York 
will help us all that is in their power. We hope our bro- 
ther will by no means be withdrawn from us. If this 
should take place, the cause of religion will die among us, 
immorality and wickedness will prevail. 

" Right Rev. Father, — As the head and father of the 
holy and apostolical Church in this state, we entreat you to 
take a special charge of us. We are ignorant, mean, poor, 
and need your assistance. Come, venerable father, and 
visit your children, and warm their hearts by your pre- 
sence in the things which belong to their everlasting peace* 
May the great Head of the Church whom you serve be 
with you, and His blessing ever remain with you ! 

" We, venerable father, remain your dutiful child- 
ren." 

The bishop's answer breathes an apostolic spi* 
rk :— 

" My children, — I have received your letter by your 
brother and teacher, Eleazer Williams, and return your 
affectionate and Christian salutation, praying that grace, 
mercy, and peace from God the Father and from our Lord 
Jesus Christ, may be with you. 

" My children, — I rejoice to hear of your faith in the 
one living and true God, and in His Son Jesus Christ whom 
He has sent, whom to know is life eternal : and I pray that, 
by the Holy Spirit of God, you may be kept steadfast in 
this faith, and may walk worthy of Him who hath called 
you out of darkness into His marvellous light. 

" My children. — It is true, as you say, that the Gospel 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is intended for In- 
dians as well as white people. For the great Father of 
all hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth ; 
and hath sent His Son Jesus Christ to teach them all, and 
to die for them all, that they may be redeemed from the 
power of sin, and brought to the acknowledgment of the 
truth, and to the service of the living God. 

" My children, — It is true, as you say, that the religion 
of the Gospel will make you happy in this world, as well 
as hi the world to come; and I join in your prayer, that 
you may profess it inwardly as well as outwardly ; that, 



254 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may be transformed 
by the renewing of your minds, and acquire holy tempers, 
and practise the holy duties which the Gospel enjoins. 
And for this purpose I beseech you to attend to the instruc- 
tions of your faithful teacher and brother, Eleazer "Wil- 
liams : to unite with him in the holy prayers of our apos- 
tolic Church, which he has translated into your own 
language ; to listen with reverence to the Divine word 
which he reads to you ; to receive, as through grace you 
may be qualified, and may have an opportunity, the sacra- 
ments and ordinances of the Church ; and at all times, and 
in all places, to lift up your hearts in supplication to the 
Father of your spirits, who always and every where hears 
and sees you, for pardon and grace, to comfort, to teach, 
and to sanctify you, through your divine Mediator, Jesus 
Christ. 

" My children, — Let me exhort you diligently to lalSr 
to get your living by cultivating the earth, or by some other 
lawful calling ; you will thus promote your worldly com- 
fort, you will be more respected among your white breth- 
ren, and more united and strong among yourselves. And 
when you are thus engaged, you will be saved from many 
temptations ; and you will prove yourselves to be good dis- 
ciples of Him, who, by His inspired apostle, has enjoined, 
that while we are ' fervent in spirit,' we be ' not slothful 
in business.' 

" My children — Continue to respect and to love your 
brother and teacher, Eleazer Williams, and to treat him 
kindly ; for he loves you, and is desirous to devote himself 
to your service ; that, by God's grace, he may be instru- 
mental in making you happy here and hereafter. It is my 
w r ish that he may remain with you, and may be your spi- 
ritual guide and instructor. 

"My children, — I rejoice to hear that your brethren, 
the Onondagas, are desirous of knowing the words of truth 
and salvation. I hope you will not complain if your teach- 
er, Eleazer Williams, sometimes visits them, to lead them 
in that way to eternal life, which, from God's word, he has 
pointed out to you. Freely ye have received, you should 
freely give ; and being made partakers of the grace of God 



BISHOP HOBART/'s VISIT TO THE ONEIDAS. 255 

through Jesus Christ, you should be desirous that all your 
red brethren may enjoy the same precious gift. 

" My children, — It is my purpose, if the Lord will, to 
come and see you next summer ; and I hope to find you as 
good Christians, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and 
living righteously, soberly and godly in this present world. 
I shall have you in my heart, and shall remember you hi 
my prayers, for you are a part of my charge, of that flock 
for whom the Son of God gave Himself even unto the death 
upon the cross, and whom He commanded His ministers to 
seek and to gather unto His fold, that through Him they 
might be saved for ever. 

" My children, — May God be with you and bless 
you. 

{Signed) John Henry Hobart, 

Bishop of the Prot. Epis. Church in the 
Slate of New-York. 

Dated at New -York, the 1st day 
of February, in the year of 
our Lord 1818, and in the 
seventh year of my conse- 
cration." 

From this promised visit no other engagements could 
divert him. In the following summer he penetrated to 
the Indian reserves. The scene he witnessed filled him 
with deeper interest for his red children. 

Their wide extended domains were lying in common, 
the property of the tribe, not of individuals ; some little of 
it cultivated, more in open pasture, but most in its state 
of native wildness, and reserved for hunting-ground . Through 
these forests, paths there were many, but roads none ; and 
the generally rude, though sometimes neat and rustic dwell- 
ings of these sons of the forest lay scattered in wild but 
picturesque confusion— some upon gentle eminences, others 
in rich valleys ; some open to the sun, others embosomed 
in shade ; and exhibiting here and there traces of a taste 
for natural scenery which recommended them still further 
(at least as objects of interesting inquiry) to such a lover 
of nature as Bishop Hobart. Among those who flocked 



256 AMERICAN CHURCH. . 

around him on this occasion, as he stood in the recesses of 
their primeval forests, was one aged Mohawk warrior, who, 
amid his heathen brethren, had for half a century held fast 
by that holy faith in which he had been instructed and 
baptised by a missionary from the society in England, while 
these states were still colonies. Through the catechist as 
interpreter, he now recounted the event in the figurative 
language of these children of nature, and pointed out to 
his admiring auditor, with as much feeling as belongs to 
that imperturbable race, the very spot where this early 
missionary had been accustomed to assemble them, and 
preach to a congregation which, as it afterwards appeared, 
had listened to him rather from curiosity than conviction. 

It was, as the bishop in conversation described it, an 
open glade in the forest, with a few scattered oaks still 
vigorous and spreading ; and within view, as if to perpetu- 
ate the association, now arose the tower of the neat rustic 
church, which the Christian party among them had recently 
erected. To his next convention Bishop Hobart gave his 
own account of this visit to the forest and its red inha- 
bitants : — 

" It is a subject of congratulation, that our Church has 
resumed the labors which, lor a long period before the 
revolutionary war, the society in England for Propagating 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts directed to the religious instruc- 
tion of the Indian tribes. These labors were not wholly 
unsuccessful ; for on my recent visit to the Oneidas, I saw 
an ancient Mohawk, who, firm in the faith of the gospel, 
and adorning his profession by an exemplary fife, is in- 
debted, under the Divine blessing, for his Christian princi- 
ples and hopes, to the missionaries of that venerable society. 
The exertions more recently made for the conversion of 
the Indian tribes have not been so successful, partly be- 
cause not united with efforts to introduce among them 
those arts of civilisation without which the gospel can 
neither be understood nor valued ; but principally because 
religious instruction was conveyed through the imperfect 
medium of interpreters, by those unacquainted with their 
dispositions and habits, and in whom they were not dis- 
posed to place the same confidence as in those who are 



INDIAN CONVERTS. 257 

connected with them by the powerful ties of language, 
of manners, and of kindred. The religious instructor of 
the Oneidas employed by our church enjoys all these ad- 
vantages. Being of Indian extraction, and acquainted 
with their language, dispositions, and customs, and devot- 
ing himself unremittingly to their spiritual and temporal 
welfare, he enjoys their full confidence, while the educa- 
tion which he has received has increased his qualifications 
as their guide in the faith and precepts of the gospel. Mr. 
Eleazer Williams, at the earnest request of the Oneida 
chiefs, was licensed by me about two years since, as their 
lay reader, catechist, and schoolmaster. Educated in a 
different communion, he connected himself with our Church 
from conviction, and appears warmly attached to her doc- 
trines, her apostolic ministry, and her worship. Soon after 
he commenced his labors among the Oneidas, the Pagan 
party solemnly professed the Christian faith. Mr. Williams 
repeatedly explained to them, in councils which they held 
for this purpose, the evidences of the divine origin of Chris- 
tianity, and its doctrines, institutions, and precepts. He 
combated their objections, patiently answered their inquiries, 
and was finally, through the Divine blessing, successful in 
satisfying their doubts. Soon after their conversion, they 
appropriated, in conjunction with the old Christian party, 
the proceeds of the sale of some of their lands to the erection 
of a handsome edifice for divine worship, which will be 
shortly completed. 

" In the work of their spiritual instruction, the Book of 
Common Prayer, a principal part of which has been trans- 
lated for their use, proves a powerful auxiliary. Its simple 
and affecting exhibition of the truths of redemption is cal- 
culated to interest their hearts, while it informs their un- 
derstanding ; and its decent and significant rites contribute 
to fix their attention, in the exercises of worship. They are 
particularly gratified with having parts assigned them in 
the service, and repeat the responses with great propriety 
and devotion. On my visit to them, several hundred 
assembled for worship ; those who could read were fur- 
nished with books, and they uttered the confessions of the 
liturgy, responded its supplications, and chanted its hymns 



258 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of praise, with a reverence and fervor which powerfully 
interested the feelings of those who witnessed the solem- 
nity, They listened to my address to them, interpreted 
by Mr. "Williams, with so much solicitous attention, they 
received the laying on of hands with such grateful humil- 
ity, and participated in the symbols of their Saviour's love 
with such tears of penitential devotion, that the impres- 
sion which the scene made on my mind will never be 
effaced. Nor was this the excitement of the moment, or 
the ebullition of enthusiasm. The eighty-nine who were 
confirmed had been, well instructed by Mr. Williams ; and 
none were permitted to approach the communion whose 
lives did not correspond with their Christian professions. 
The numbers of those who assembled for worship, and 
partook of the ordinances, would have been greater, but 
from the absence of many of them at an Indian council at 
Buffalo. 

" I have admitted Mr. Williams as a candidate for 
orders, on the recommendation of the standing committee ; 
and look forward to his increased influence and usefulness, 
should he be invested with the office of the ministry. 

" There is a prospect of his having, some time hence, a 
powerful auxiliary in a young Indian, the son of the head 
warrior of the Onondagas, who was killed at the battle of 
Chippewa, and who, amiable and pious in his dispositions, 
and sprightly and vigorous in his intellectual powers, is 
earnestly desirous of receiving an education to prepare him 
for the ministry among his countrymen. I trust that 
means will be devised for accomplishing his wishes. We 
ought never to forget that the salvation of the gospel is 
designed for all the human race ; and that the same mercy 
which applies comfort to our wounded consciences, the 
same grace which purifies and soothes our corrupt and 
troubled hearts, and the same hope of immortality which 
fills us with peace and joy, can exert their benign and 
celestial influence on the humble Indian." 






CHAPTER XL 

from 1820 to 1836. 

American education — Temper of American youth — Jealousy of high 
education — Absence of theological training — Foundation of the 
General Theological Seminary — Its success — Bishop Hobart's con- 
nexion with it — ■His death — And character — Bishop B. T, Onder- 
donk succeeds — Increase of the episcopate — Bishops Ravenscroft 
and Ives of North Carolina — Bishop Meade of Virginia — And H. 
U. Onderdonk, assistant bishop of Pennsylvania — Bishop Chase of 
Ohio — Resigns his bishopric — Consecrations of Bishops M'llvaine 
of Ohio, Hopkins of Vermont, Smith of Kentucky, and Doane of 
New Jersey — Change of feeling as to the episcopate — Convention 
of 1835 — Bishop Chase of Illinois — Division of dioceses — New 
organization of missionary board — The missionary bishop — Bishop 
Kemper consecrated — Success of the new plan — Subsequent 
growth of the Church — Bishop White's illness — Death and cha- 
racter. 

Amidst the various subjects which occupied the mind of 
Bishop Hobart, one had constantly recurred. None, indeed, 
more deeply concerned North America than the influence 
of the Church on education. This, at present, is more 
widely spread and of a lower standard than in the older 
nations of Europe. Throughout the eastern states, read- 
ing, writing, geography, and arithmetic, are almost univer- 
sal ; and even some measure of classical attainment is by 
no means rare. In New- York, in 1832, out of a popula- 
tion of two millions, half a million, or one in four, were at 
school.* It is asserted, but without any grounds being 
given to justify the calculation, that of the whole popula- 
tion of the United States, one in five are under education.! 
In the slave-states of the south, the diffusion and character 



* Caswall's America, p. 197. 

f J. S. Buckingham's America, vol. ii. p. 366. 



260 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of education falls greatly lower than this level ; whilst in 
Ohio and some of the newer north-west states, lands for 
the support of education have been set aside from their 
first settlement ; and these bid fair, ere long, to rival the 
" empire"^ state. But with all this wide spread of educa- 
tion it nowhere reaches to the high measure of the Old 
World. For this there is as yet neither provision nor de- 
mand. This must be more or less the case where there 
are no classes born to hereditary wealth ; and this tendency 
is increased by the peculiarities of American character, 
which is eminently busy and practical ; urging men to ac- 
quire money, immediate influence, and direct results in all 
things. Even childhood is moulded by these feelings. 
"Boys are men before they are loosed from their leading- 
strings. They are educated in the belief that every man 
must be the architect of his own fortune. There is, to be 
sure, a limited class who look forward to the decease of 
parents as the commencement of an era in which they will 
have no duty to do but to enjoy the property bequeathed 
to them ; but, as a class, it is too small to be considered in 
the estimate of national character. The great majority 
look forward to manhood as the time to act, and anticipate 
it by juvenile participation in the events of busy life. Boys 
argue upon polemics, political economy, party politics, 
the mysteries of trade, the destinies of nations. Dreams 
of ambition or of wealth nerve the arm which drives the 
hoop. Toys are stock in trade ; barter is fallen into by 
instinct." 

This is an American estimatef of the character of boy- 
hood there : and with this the highest measure of educa- 
tion is manifestly incompatible. It is valued only as it 
fits men to act successfully their immediate part in the 
busy scene before them. Whatever rises above this level 
is looked at rather with suspicion than good will. Like 
great wealth or distinctions of rank, it cannot harmonize 
entirely with republican institutions. It is the assertion 
of superiority. " The multitude hi this country," says an 

* An American name for New-York. 

t Extracted by J. S. Buckingham, vol. i. p. HO, from a leading 
New- York journal. 



EDUCATION. 261 

address delivered in an eastern state to a collegiate institu* 
tion,^ "so far from favoring and honoring high learning 
and science, is rather prone to suspect and dislike it. It 
feareth that genius savoreth of aristocracy ! Besides, the 
multitude calleth itself a practical man. It asketh, what 
is the use ? It seeth no use but in that which leads to 
money or the material ends of life. It hath no opinion of 
having dreamers and drones in society. It believeth, in- 
deed, in railroads; it thinketh well of steam ; and owneth 
that the new art of bleaching by chlorine is a prodigious 
improvement : but it laughs at the profound researches 
into the laws of nature, out of which those very inventions 
grew ; and with still greater scorn it laughs at the votaries 
of the more spiritual forms of truth and beauty, which 
have no application to the palpable uses of life. Then, 
again, the influence of our reading public is not favorable 
to high letters. It demands, it pays for and respects, al- 
most exclusively, a lower style of production ; and hence a 
natural influence to discourage higher labors." 

In such a state of feeling the best hope was in the in- 
stitution of theological seminaries of a high caste. Though 
the clergy had too commonly been engrossed by the inces- 
sant claims of pastoral duty, yet amongst them there was 
the best chance of forming a set of thoughtful, highly 
cultivated minds : and if once the standard were raised 
anywhere, discontent with the general poverty of attain- 
ments would soon be widely felt. To these motives for 
exertion must be added the absolute deficiency of theologi- 
cal instruction. Hobart himself was trained hi a Presby- 
terian college : and while such a course of education might 
endanger the principles of weaker minds, it certainly de- 
prived the stronger of the blessing of strict theological in- 
struction. To this want, therefore, his attention was early 
called : he longed to see such institutions founded ; but his 
first care was, that their principles should be so firmly 
fixed as to preserve them from the passing influence of the 
day. They were to impart a character ; not to adopt that 
of others. For otherwise they would fail of their highest 
purpose, and instead of teaching the student 

* Quoted in CaswalTs American Church. 



262 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" How patiently the yoke of thought to bear, 
Subtly to guide its finest threads along.''* 

they would soon degenerate, under another name, into the 
common run of ordinary schools. From fear of this, he 
opposed, at the cost of much misrepresentation, the earliest 
proposals for founding a general theological seminary ; 
though none felt more strongly the need of such an institu- 
tion, or labored more diligently in its formation, when the 
temper of the Church seemed to justify the undertaking. 

In the convention of 1817 this scheme was adopted ; 
and in that of 1820, and in one specially held in 1821, it 
received its perfect form. The general seminary was es- 
tablished in New- York ; it was placed under the control 
of the whole Church, her bishops being officially trustees, 
in common with a body elected by the several states from 
residents within their own borders. Each state chooses 
Qne trustee, and one more for every eight of its clergy ; 
and, besides these, it may elect one trustee for every two 
thousand dollars it contributes to the common fund, with 
a proviso that when one state already possesses five such 
trustees, its further contributions must amount to 10,000 
dollars for an additional trustee. Thus founded, "the 
General Theological Seminary" soon struck its roots firmly 
in the soil. In 1836 eighty-six students were upon its 
books, at an annual expense of 24/. each.f It has already 
greatly raised the standard of cleric?d attainments, and its 
future influence may be more momentous still. Already 
it has gathered to itself various important endowments, 
and gives promise of assuming and maintaining something 
of that high character which for centuries the mother- 
country has identified with the very names of her " two 
famous universities." In 1841, though still greatly need- 
ing further exertions, it possessed twelve scholarships, en- 
dowed with sums varying from 450Z. to 660/., and pro- 
fessorships, for which endowments of 4,500Z. and 5,6251. 
had been obtained. $ It had received since its foundation, 

* Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sketches. 

f Caswall's America, p. 155. 

X Appendix A. to Report of Convention of 1841. 



DEATH OF BISHOP HOBART. 263 

by voluntary contributions, the sum of 228,420 dollars, or 
about 50,7701. ; its library at the close of 1837 numbered 
6011, and in 1843, 7500 volumes; and, besides the addi- 
tions made by benefactors, was increasing yearly from the 
interest of 6000 dollars held as a permanent investment 
for its benefit. 

It was mainly to Bishop Hobart that this institution, so 
full of promise for America, owed its origin ; but he scarce- 
ly lived to see it in active operation. The convention of 
October 1829 filled up the requisite number of trustees, 
and in the September of the following year he was taken 
to his rest. He died at his work at Auburn, whilst on the 
visitation of the western district of his diocese. Worn out 
by the combined labors of a pressing pastoral charge and 
an exhausting bishopric, he sunk upon the threshold of his 
56th year. His memory will long endure in the grateful 
remembrance of the churchmen of the west. He left an 
impression of his well-ordered zeal deeply traced upon many 
minds and many institutions round him. This he had the 
joy of witnessing before his dismissal. He was the centre 
to which men of active and high-principled exertion natu- 
rally turned. He lived long enough to survive the clamor 
which broke in so rudely upon his opening episcopate ; and 
whilst he never receded from a principle, so greatly did his 
straightforward honesty of character win on all men, that 
hi a contested election of governor of his own state, it was 
commonly asserted, " that were Bishop Hobart to stand, 
he would be the only candidate who would carry the vote 
of both parties."^ 

In the next convention (Oct. 1832) Bishop B. T. On- 
derdonk, who had been consecrated two months after 
Bishop Hobart' s death, took his place in the general coun- 
cil of the Church. The episcopate was greatly strengthen- 
ed since the time when the consecration of Dr. Hobart was 
a matter of doubtful possibility. In 1823 North Carolina 
was placed under the care of Bishop Ravenscroft. He ad- 
ministered that diocese in Hobart's spirit. " The situation 
of this southern country," he tells the Bishop of New- York, 

* M'Vickar, p. 485. 



264 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" surrendered for the last forty or eighty years to the ex- 
clusive influence of dissenters, left me no alternative, but 
either to increase that influence by adopting half-way mea- 
sures, or by a decided course to call into action what was 
left of predilection for her, and to rally her real friends 
around her."* There were not wanting those who pre- 
dicted failure from these efforts, which to them seemed 
premature. But the conclusion, says the bishop, justified 
his expectations. His course was far shorter than that of 
his friend and brother hi authority. Since the convention 
of 1829 he, too, had been gathered in amongst the per- 
fected ; and in September 1831, Dr. L. S. Ives was conse- 
crated in his room. Others too had been added to the 
apostolic college. Dr. Meade, as we have seen, had been 
appointed assistant-bishop of Virginia; Dr. Stone,* after a 
two-years' vacancy, occupied the place of the late Bishop 
Kemp of Maryland ; whilst three years before, in Pennsyl- 
vania, Dr. H. U. Onderdonk had been associated with the 
aged Bishop White. His election had allayed a strife 
which threatened to molest the last years of the mild pa- 
triarch of the Western Church, and the assistant-bishop 
strengthened with zeal and judgment his venerable princi- 
pal. Though now bearing the burden of eighty-four win- 
ters, Bishop White was still a constant attendant at the 
meeting of convention, and imparted to its councils the 
wisdom and the meekness of his old experience. These 
were called for at this time by difficulties which had arisen 
in the state of Ohio. Dr. Philander Chase, whom we have 
followed through his missionary life to his consecration as 
its bishop and the founder of Kenyon College, now desired, 
under trying circumstances, to resign his bishopric. This 
had been made inseparable from the headship of the col- 
lege, and between himself and its professors irreconcilable 
variance had arisen. After long debates, the convention al- 
lowed his resignation, and proceeded to act on the choice of 
a successor, which his diocese had made. On the 31st of 
October, forty-six years (within two days) from the time of 
his embarking from the same city to receive consecration 

* Letter to Bishop Hobart, — Dr. Berrian's Life, p. 366. 
f Consecrated Oct. 1830. 



EEABMXSSZON OF BISHOP CHASE. 265 

from the English archbishop, Bishop White laid his aged 
hands upon the heads of four more who were severed to 
bear onward their Master's witness. Dr. M'llvaine was 

consecrated Bishop of Ohio ; Dr. John H. Hopkins of Ver- 
mont, now parted from the eastern diocese : Dr. B. B. 
Smith of Kentucky, which had been organised three years 
before ; and Dr. G-. W. Doane of the old diocese of New- 
Jersey. " What a wonderful change," 5 * says the aged 
bishop, " had he lived to witness in reference to American 
episcopacy ;" he who now thus peacefully rilled up the 
vacant seats of rule, " remembered the ante-revolutionary 
times, when the press profusely emitted pamphlet and 
newspaper disquisitions on the question, whether an Ame- 
rioan bishop was to be endured, and when threats were 
thrown out, of throwing such a person, if sent, into the 
river." 

Still more important matters marked the next assem- 
bly of convention. It met in 1835 at the city of Philadel- 
phia, and would have been marked amongst the synods of 
that Church, if by nothing else, yet by being the last at 
which the aged Bishop White was present. But besides 
this, enduring consequences resulted from its sittings. 
These appropriately opened with the readmission of Dr. 
Philander Chase to the upper house as Bishop of Illinois, 
which under his care had been organised as a diocese since 
the meeting of the last convention. During that interval 
he had been laboring as an indefatigable missionary in 
Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois : and now " a veteran 
bishop, a soldier of the cross, whom hardships never have 
discouraged, whom no difficulties seem to daunt, and who 
entered upon his new campaign with all the chivalry of 
thirty-five, was cordially welcomed to his seat amongst the 
counsellors of the Church.' 'f 

Early in the session a committee was appointed to take 
into consideration such an alteration of the constitution as 
should allow of the division of any diocese which had out- 
grown the powers of one bishop. " The prosperous and 
powerful diocase of New- York" gave occasion for this sug- 

* jS"otes to page 63 of Bishop White's Memorial, p. 266. 
f Appendix to " Missionary Bishop," p. 37. 
12 



266 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

gestion ; and the canon adopted in committee has since 
become a part of the constitution, and under it New- York 
was parted into the eastern and western diocese. This 
was scarcely arranged, when the whole missionary opera- 
tions of the Church were brought into discussion. Since 
the year 1820 these had come under the consideration of 
convention ; before that time they had been left to the 
voluntary zeal of self-constituted societies ; but in that 
year " a board of missions" was authoritatively organised. 
The constitution then formed was not, indeed, long retain- 
ed. It w T as hastily adopted on the last day of the sitting 
of convention, and was quickly found to be as inconvenient 
in practice as it was undoubtedly unsound in principle, 
since the Bishops of the Church were scarcely recognized, 
in this their especial function. In 1S23, 1829, and 1832, 
it came again under review, until in 1835 it received its 
last alterations and permanent organisation. 

The importance of this matter requires a more detailed 
relation of its progress, and this shall be mainly given in 
the words of those who conducted it, because these will 
bring more vividly before us the views and feelings which 
guided the framers of this new arrangement. 

The moral and religious state of the vast population 
which was springing up along the great valley of the 
Mississippi had grown into a matter of political as well as 
spiritual moment. The attention of the Church was loudly 
called to its condition. In a sermon preached at Brooklyn.*' 
the suburbs of New- York, in the year 1835, and published 
at the request of those who heard it, the preacher asks,t 
"Can any Christian look without concern upon the move- 
ments at the w r est — the rush of foreign population, the 
rapid growth of cities and villages, and the astonishing rise 
in the value of land — without inquiring who is taking 
possession of this finest part of our country ? What are 
the habits, the intelligence, and the religion of the people ? 
Have they our sacred institutions ? Are they an educated 
people ? Are they a religious people ? "Will they carry 
with them the ' ark of the covenant' into the wilderness ? 

* By Dr. Benjamin C. Cutler. f Sermon, p. 9. 



PROSPECTS OF THE WEST. 267 

Suppose, in answer to these questions, it should be told you, 
that they were coming to this country without the means 
of education or religious instruction, or if they have the lat- 
ter, so closely connected with a foreign political power, and 
having so little relation to our modes of thinking and feel- 
ing, that to the most charitable they promise little or no 
aid hi the great work of enlightening the mind, and to 
others they are the most alarming accompamement of the 
emigration — could you sit quiet and at ease ? 

" And while you proudly traversed with your eye the 
majestic map, or beheld the swelling columns of your nu- 
merical strength : while the rivers of the west are rolling 
down their rich harvests, and you by them are enabled to 
build stately habitations and to dwell in them, — could you 
forbear to think of the future ? The more you magnify 
the wealth and population of the west, unless that popula- 
tion is enlightened and religious, the more should your fears 
be magnified. 

u Cities and villages, governments and maxims of go- 
vernment, opinions, principles, and habits, are all now 
struggling for existence amid that peculiarly selected, vig- 
orous, and independent population. And while the com- 
parative poverty of the eastern part of our national do- 
main, and the impassable barrier of the Atlantic Ocean, is 
hemming in and limiting for ever the influence of the 
eastern and Atlantic states, the horizon towards the west 
is illimitable. 

" States and nations may in future times date their 
origin back to the millions which have now taken posses- 
sion of that most fertile part of the American continent. 
Nor is this all. While the population is increasing and roll- 
ing westward, that which is now denominated the east will 
be compelled into entire subjection to its own offspring. 
The time cannot be far distant when, contrary to the 
course of heaven, light and authority will proceed from 
west to east.^ But oh, will it be the pure light of heaven, 
or the lurid fires of superstition, cruelty, and crime ? 

* One state at the west now has more votes and more voices on 

the floor of congress than four of the ^ew-England states. 



268 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

'• Upon us most certainly devolves the duty of directing 
the destiny of the west, and that is the destiny of both east 
and west. . . . There is now a crisis in the affairs of the 

American people (much is needed) to retain our 

prosperity, our liberty, and our religion On two or 

three important places has our Church commenced this 
work. Ohio and Kentucky, at the head of the great val- 
ley, have now in the centre of each an institution for ex- 
tending the influence of religion and learning. Further on, 
Tennessee and Illinois are organising for this purpose ; Mis- 
souri and the fertile states at the south through which the 
riches of the west are passing, will not be long unoccupied. 
.... Whether we shall push our own principles of liber- 
ty and religion on to the great battle-ground, and effectually 
establish them against all opposition, or whether we shall 
there be met and resisted, and crowded back to the moun- 
tains and rocks, where the first great battles of our inde- 
pendence were fought, upon the present generation of Ame- 
rican Christians or upon that which shall immediately 
succeed them, it must under God depend." 

Under such a sense of responsibility as regarded the 
work of domestic missions did the Church engage in re- 
constructing her missionary constitution. A few extracts 
from the sermon preached by Dr. Doane, the bishop of 
New Jersey, at the consecration of Bishop Kemper, on his 
election by this convention as first missionary bishop, will 
show the ground taken and the principles affirmed through- 
out this whole institution. They differ widely from that 
earlier temper which depressed as low as possible the of- 
fice and authority of bishops, which restrained the Church 
from their election, and looked upon them with a watchful 
jealousy. In answer to the question, "What is a mission- 
ary bishop ?" he observes : "As the Church obeying the 
mandate of her divine Head sends presbyters and deacons 
* to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature ;' so may she, and so should she — emulating that 
divine compassion which yearned over the fainting multi- 
tudes trjat roamed untendecl and unfed amongst the moun- 
tains cf Judge a — send bishops to them, to seek the wan- 
dering flocks, to lead them to the sacred fold, to appoint 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOP. 269 

them under- shepherds, to oversee and govern them with 
due authority and godly discipline, and ' warning every 
man and teaching every man in all wisdom,' to do all that 
in them lies 'to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.' 
And this is what is meant by a missionary bishop : a bi- 
shop sent forth by the Church, not sought for of the 
Church ; going before to organise the Church, not waiting 
till the Church has been partially organised ; a leader, not 
a follower, in the march of the Redeemer's conquering and 
triumphant Gospel ; sustained by their alms whom God 
has blessed both with the power and will to offer to Him 
of their substance, for their benefit who are not blessed 
with both or either of them ; sent by the Church, even as 
the Church is sent by Christ, not to such only as have 
knowledge of His truth and desire Him for their King, but 
to the ignorant and rebellious, to them who know not of 
His name, or will not have Him to reign over them." 

He then goes onto show from holy Scripture that " the 
office of apostle or — the inspiration and the power of mir- 
acles ceasing with the necessity for them — of missionary 
bishop was confirmed by Jesus Christ Himself with perpe- 
tuity of succession to the end of time ;" and then points 
out " why the times especially require such effort8. , ' Hav- 
ing shown the needs and openings of heathen lands, he 
points their attention to their own. " Do we look home- 
ward ? Through the regions of our own unbounded west 
see how the stream of life sets onward. Behold, in arts, 
in wealth, in power, a progress such as earth has never 
seen, outrunning even fancy's wildest dreams ; but with no 
provision that at all keeps pace with it for the securing of 
man's nobler and immortal interests. Observe with what 
a keen and shrewd regard the Church of Home has marked 
that region for her own, and with what steadiness of pur- 
pose she pursues her aim, and seeks today the deep foun- 
dations of a power which is to grow as it grows, and to 
strengthen as it gathers strength." Further on he reminds 
them where they are to labor. " The field is the whole 
world. To every soul of man in every part of it the Gos- 
pel is to be preached ; everywhere the Gospel is to be 
preached, by, through, and in the Church. To bishops, as 



270 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the successors of the Apostles, the promise of the Lord was 
given to be with His Church ' alway to the end of the 
World ;' upon bishops, as successors of the Apostles, 
the perpetuation of the Christian ministry depends ; 
to bishops, as successors of the Apostles, the govern- 
ment of the Church, the preaching of the word, the 
administration of the sacraments, the care of souls, has been 
entrusted. Without bishops, as successors of the Apostles, 
there is no warrant, and for fifteen hundred years from 
Christ there was no precedent, for the establishment or 
the extension of the Church. Possessing these things, act 
accordingly. Freely ye have received, freely give. Open 
your eyes to the wants, open your ears to the cry, open 
your hands for the relief, of a perishing world . Send the 
Gospel, send it as you received it, in the Church ; send 
out to preach the Gospel and to build the Church — to every 
portion of your own broad land — to every stronghold of the 
prince of hell, to every den and nook and lurking-place of 
heathendom — a missionary bishop." 

Further, he enforces on them the discharge of this their 
duty by the consideration of the very "genius and order of 
the Church." "It is of the nature of a trust that there 
be always given with it authority and power for the due 
execution of all its proper uses. It is still farther of the 
nature of a trust, that on its acceptance there devolves on 
the trustee the bounden duty to secure as much as in him 
lies its full and faithful execution. !N"ow the Gospel is 
God's gift in trust for the conversion and salvation of lost 
man. The Church is his trustee. ... To discharge the 
duties of a continual trust, the trustee of necessity must 
have continuance. The Church is by divine appointment 
'perpetual by succession in the highest order of her minis- 
try. ' All power is given unto me in heaven and in 
earth ;' # 'As my Father hath sent me, so send I you ;'t 
' Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world. '$ .... Hence of necessity flow out resulting trusts, 
immense in value and of infinite responsibility. She is to 

be a missionary Church Her bishops are Apostles, 

each in his proper sphere sent out to c feed the Church of 

* St. Matt, xxviii. 18. f st - J ohn **■ 21. + St - Matt, xxviii. 20. 



THE MISSIONARY BISHOP. 271 

God ;' jointly and in agreement with established principles 
of order in the Church, they have the power which Christ 
imparted to the twelve — ' As my Father hath sent me, so 
send I you' — to send Apostles in His name. Her ministers 
are all evangelists, to go wherever God shall call them 
through His Church to bear the blessed tidings of salvation, 
through the blood of Jesus, for a ruined world. Her mem- 
bers, baptised into the death of Jesus, and so purchased by 
His blood, are missionaries all in spirit or intent, to go, or 
— if themselves go not — to see that others go, and to con- 
tribute faithfully and freely of the ability which God shall 
give them to sustain them while they go and 'preach. the 
Gospel unto every creature.' Such, as the Scripture 
teaches, is the original, the permanent, the immutable 
constitution of the Christian Church ; such, by the solemn 
act of its highest legislative council, is declared to be the 
constitution of this Church. Baptised into her in the name 
of the eternal Three hi One, you become a party to the trust 
with which she is honored by her heavenly Head to preach 
the everlasting Gospel. It is a trust which no man who 
has once assumed can put off; for his baptisimal vow is 
registered in heaven, and will go with him in its conse- 
quences of unmingled bliss or woe throughout eternity," 

For the discharge of this trust by her children, he goes 
on to show them that the Church, after her Lord's exam- 
ple, had now made a fit provision. "It is recorded of the 
Holy Saviour, as He went out amongst the cities and vil- 
lages of Judsea preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, that 
when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compas- 
sion on them, because they famted and were scattered 
abroad as sheep having no shepherd. 'Then saith He 
unto His disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the 
laborers are fe w ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the har- 
vest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest'. . . . 
Behold, brethren, in the service which assembles us this 
day, the result of God's especial blessing on the Church's 
holy emulation of her Savior's love. Like Him and on the 
pathway which His blessed footsteps traced with tears and 
blood, the Church has gone about amongst the villages and 
and cities of this broad and sinful land. Everywhere has 



272 AFRICAN CHURCH. 

she found ignorant to instruct, mourners to comfort, rebels 
to reclaim, sinners to save ; but the west, the vast distant 
and unsettled west, has fixed her eye and agonised her 
heart. There, indeed, has she saved great multitudes 
that fainted with the burden of the weary way, and wan- 
dered cheerless and uncared for as ' sheep that have no 
shepherd.' There, indeed, has she beheld the wily serpent 
and the prowling wolf, and regretted with bitter tears that 
she could do no more to guard her Savior's lambs. . . . 
Encouraged by the divine assurance, she betook herself to 
prayer . . . she supplicated the gracious Lord of that abun- 
dant harvest, that he would 'send forth laborers into His 
harvest.' He graciously inclined His ear and heard her 
prayer He was present by His divine and Holy Spi- 
rit in the council of His Church, as He had been in the 
councils of the Apostles. He harmonized all hearts. He 
suggested wisdom, He imparted courage, He communicated 
thoughts ; above all, He sent His Holy Ghost, and poured 
into their hearts ' that most excellent gift of charity, the 
very bond of peace and of all virtues,' and so enabled them 
as but one man to contrive, digest, mature, propose, accom- 
plish, and cany into practice the great missionary work, 
that here, this day, .... we have come up before His 
altar, to present the first fruit of the Saviour's answer to 
His Church's prayer for her lost sheep in the vast west — 
her first — God grant that it need not long be said — her 
only missionary bishop."^ 

Such were the principles on which the new missionary 
constitution of the American Church was founded ; and 
they are consistently maintained throughout all its details. 
The report of the committee to which its organization was 
entrusted, and who agreed " as one man" in their conclu- 
sions, was thus explained by their chairman, Bishop Doane 
(of New Jersey) to the convention. " He showed! that by 

* Bishop Doane's Sermon. 

f Appendix to a sermon preached at the consecration of the 
Right. Rev. Jackson Kemper, D.D., Missionary Bishop for Missouri 
and Indiana, in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, by G-. W. Doane, 
D.D., Bishop of the diocese of Xew Jersey, Sept. 25, 1835. The 
italics, (fee, in the text, are copied from the original. 



NEW ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH. 273 

the original constitution of Christ, the Church, as the 
Church, was the one great missionary society ; and the 
Apostles and the Bishops their successors. His per- 
petual trustees ; and that this could, not and should never 
be divided or deputed. The duty, he maintained, to sup- 
port the Church in preaching the Gospel to every creature, 
was one which passed on every Christian by the terms of 
his baptismal vow, and from which he could never be ab- 
solved. The general convention he claimed to be the duly 
constituted representative of the Church ; and pointed out 
its admirable combination of all that was necessary to se- 
cure, on the one hand, the confidence of the whole Church, 
and, on the other, the most concentrated and intense effici- 
ency. He then explained the constitution of the board of 
missions, the permanent agent of the Church in this be- 
half; . . . and in subordination to it the two executive com- 
mitees for the two departments, foreign and domestic, of 
the one great fold. . . Each having its secretary and agent, 
some strong and faithful man, embued . . . with the mis- 
sionary spirit, the index-finger, as it were, of the com- 
mittee. . . . For the effectual organization of the body in 
the holy work to which the Saviour calls them, he indicated 
the parochial relation as the most important of all bonds, 
calling on every clergyman, as the agent of the board, for 
Jesus' sake to use his utmost efforts in instructing first, 
and then interesting his people, then in engaging their 
free-will offering of themselves in its support, upon the 
apostolic plan of systematic charity, laying up hi store on 
every Lord's day as God should prosper them ; and when 
the gathering was made, transmitting to the treasury of 
the Church the consecrated alms." 

This report being received by the convention, a " con- 
stitution" in accordance with it was prepared, and adopted 
with remarkable unanimity. Nothing could show more 
clearly the general change of feeling in the body than the 
unanimous adoption by clergymen and laity of this report. 
Instead of doubtfully and timidly maintaining Episcopacy, 
amply contented with a cold toleration from others, and 
deeming apology for her peculiarities continually needful, 
the Church now declared herself to be indeed Christ's 
12* 



274 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

messenger, resolved in His strength to bear his message. 
Instead of watching jealously the bishop's authority, and 
restraining it under the merely human machinery of com- 
mittees and the like, she boldly avowed that in it was the 
secret of administrative strength, of vigor combined with 
unity, as well as the principle of ministerial reproduction, 
and therein the great external instrument for the perpetu- 
ity of her own witness. This new and vigorous conduct 
was the fruit of God's blessing upon their labors who lived 
not to see on this earth their reward. It w T as that at 
which Bishop Hobart had aimed when, as by a trumpet's 
voice, he had roused her slumbering watchmen. It rilled 
with humble joy the hearts of those who witnessed it. 
"For ourselves," says an American publication* of the 
day, " we consider it a measure of far greater promise to 
the Church of Christ than any which in our day has been 
effected. In its adoption the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the United States has placed herself on primitive ground, 
She stands as a Church in the very attitude in which the 
apostolic Church at Jerusalem, when the day of Pentecost 
had brought the Holy Spirit down to guide and bless it, 
set out to bear the Gospel of its heavenly Head to every 
soul of man in every land. As the Church she undertakes, 
and before God binds herself to sustain the injunction of 
her Lord, to go and 'make disciples of all nations, baptising 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
Holy Ghost.' Upon every one who, in the water of bap- 
tism, has owned the eternal triune Name, she lays, on 
peril of his soul if he neglect it, the same sacred charge. 
Her bishops are apostles all ; her clergy, all evangelists ; 
her members — each in his own sphere and to his utmost 
strength — are missionaries every man : and she — that 
noblest of all names — a missionary Church, ' to the intent 
that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly 
places may be made known, by the Church, the manifold 
wisdom of God.' 

" The constitution, as amended, having passed both 
houses on Friday the 28th, and the committee to nominate 

* See Appendix to " Missionary Bishop," p. 46. 



MISSIONARY CONSTITUTION. 275 

the board of missions having, on Saturday, been elected by 
ballot, they reported, on Monday, the persons nominated, 
who were at once unanimously confirmed. Then, for the 
first time, was the Church enabled to act to the full limit 
of her divine commission. Hitherto she had worked to 
disadvantage in sending out and sustaining, in her mission- 
ary field, deacons and presbyters, without the benefit of 
Episcopal influence and Episcopal supervision. Her flocks 
were thus without a shepherd ; and she stood before the 
world, so far as she was a missionary Church, an anomaly, 
a self-contradiction ; professing to ' do nothing without a 
bishop,' and yet planting churches everywhere, which 
owed allegiance to no bishop, and could claim no bishop's 
blessing. By the new organization, the missionary autho- 
rity and the missionary means come into the same hands. 
Before, the Church ordained missionaries who were to go 
out under the protection, and rely on the patronage, of a 
society which the Church could not control ; now, the 
Church herself, by her constituted representative, collects 
from all her members the offerings of their love ; and from 
the sacred treasure clothes and feeds the servants, whom, 
in Jesus' name, she sends. She is free now to send ; she 
is able to send ; she is entirely safe in sending, as her divine 
Lord sent at first, the overseer as well as the servant ; the 
elders of the Church not only, but the apostle, 'to ordain 
elders in every city,' and to ■ set in order the things which 
are wanting.' Accordingly, the board of missions was no 
sooner organized, than the canon ' of missionary bishops,' 
which had occupied for several days the attention of the 
house of clerical and lay deputies, was passed unanimously, 
providing not only that apostles should be sent to gather in 
the scattered sheep throughout our own broad land, but to 
preach the Gospel, and to build the Church, ' where'er the 
foot of man hath trod.' A canon worthy to be inscribed in 
golden letters over every altar — let us say more of it than 
that, a truly apostolic canon. 

" But Tuesday, Sept. 1st, as it was the last day of the 
convention, so was it, by eminence, the day of glorious is- 
sues for the Church. The board of missions, at the call of 
the venerable presiding bishop, held its first meeting, and 



276 AMERICAN CHURCH, 

appointed its two committees ; that for domestic missions 
to be located in the city of New-York, and that for foreign 
missions in the city of Philadelphia. The important busi- 
ness of the session was tending to a close ; the whole day 
had been diligently occupied in the most solemn duties. 
The canon ' of missionary bishops' had received the final 
sanction of both houses. Two over-shepherds were to be 
sent out, the messengers of the Church, to gather and to 
feed, under the direction of the house of bishops, the scat- 
tered sheep that winder, with no man to care for their 
souls, through all the wide and distant west. It was an 
act in this Church never exercised before, and yet, upon its 
due discharge, interests depended which outweigh the 
world, and will-run out into eternity. In the church (St. 
Andrew's) the representatives of the diocese are assembled. 
They wait, in their proper places, the eventful issue, while 
expectation thrills the hearts of all the multitude which 
throngs the outer courts. In a retired apartment, the fathers of 
the Church are in deep consultation. There are twelve 
assembled. They kneel in silent prayer. They rise. They 
cast their ballots. A presbyter, whose praise is in all the 
churches, is called by them to leave a heritage as fair as 
ever fell to mortal man, and bear his Master's cross through 
the deep forests of the vast south-west. Again the ballots 
are prepared. They are cast in silence. They designate 
to the same arduous work, where broad Missouri pours her 
rapid tide, another, known and loved of all, whom, from an 
humbler lot, the Saviour now has called to feed His sheep. 
A messenger bears the result to the assembled deputies. 
A breathless silence fills the house of God. It is announced 
that Francis L. Hawks and Jackson Kemper, doctors in di- 
vinity, are nominated the two first missionary bishops of 
the Church ; and all the delegates, as with a single voice, 
confirm the designation. 

" One scene remains. The night is far advanced. The 
drapery of solemn black which lines the church seems more 
funereal in the faint light of the expiring lamps. The con- 
gregation linger still, to hear the parting counsels of their 
fathers in the Lord. There is a stir in the deep chancel. 
The bishops enter, and array themselves in their appropri- 



CONSEQUENCES OF NEW MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION. 277 

ate seats. The aged patriarch, at whose hands they all 
have been invested with the warrant of their holy trust, 
stands in the desk — in aspect meek, serene, and venerable, 
as the beloved John at Ephesus, when, sole survivor of the 
apostolic band, he daily urged upon his flock the affecting 
lesson, ' Little children, love one another !' Erect and tall, 
though laden with the weight of almost ninety winters, 
and with voice distinct and clear, he holds enchained all 
eyes, all ears, all hearts, while with sustained and vigorous 
spirit, he recites, in the behalf and name of all his breth- 
ren, the pastoral message, drawn from the stores of his 
long-hoarded learning, enforced by the deductions of his old 
experience, and instinct throughout with the seraphic 
meekness of his wisdom. He ceases from his faithful tes- 
timony. The voice of melody, in the befitting words of that 
delightful Psalm, ' Behold, how good and pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity,' melts every heart. 
And then all knees are bent, to ask once more, as some- 
thing to be borne and cherished in all after-life, the apos- 
tolic benediction of that good old man." 

It was indeed a goodly progress which God had per- 
mitted this aged man to witness since eight and forty years 
before (February 1787) he had kneeled in the chapel at 
Lambeth, and received the gift of consecration from the 
English primate. Great had been God's goodness to the 
infant western Church; and now, at last, in the spirit of 
love and of a sound mind which He was pouring out upon 
her, that goodness seemed to be fulfilled. The old man 
might well take up the song of holy Simeon, and declare 
his readiness now "to depart in peace." 

The direct consequences of the new missionary organi- 
zation were soon visible in the Church. They might be 
traced in a general increase of healthful energy, the natu- 
ral consequence of the consciousness of having taken right- 
fully high ground. Funds, which had been sparingly sup- 
plied whilst the missionary cause was trusted to occasional 
appeals, and sacrifices made under excited feelings, now 
flowed in steadily and abundantly, when every baptised 
man was summoned in right of his vow at baptism to the 
duty of making systematic offerings to His Master's cause. 



278 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



The whole machinery of meetings, and sermons, and auxil- 
iary societies, had only raised the missionary income to 
33 77. per annum from the year 1820, when the society was 
founded, untiM829. Then a new spirit began to awaken, 
and in the three next years it had reached more than ten 
times that amount, exceeding 3000Z. But it did not rest 
here. In the very year which followed the amended con- 
stitution, the missionary income of the Church was raised 
at once by the principles, now brought to bear upon the 
whole community, to a sum exceeding 12,000/. The 
main cause of this vast increase is to be found in the one 
simple principle of calling upon all to give something to the 
work, as God hath prospered them, upon the first day of 
the week, because they are Christian men. This was first 
warmly pressed upon the Church by the present Bishop 
(Gr. W. Doarie) of New Jersey, and its immediate pecuniary 
consequences (far, indeed, the smallest hi importance) may 
be seen in the following statement^ of the comparative 
sums raised in six parishes within his diocesej on an average 
of five years on the old plan and one of the new. 



Parishes. 


Average of 5 rears 


Offerings of the Church 


under the old plan. 


for the first year 




Doll. Cts. 


£. s. 


Doll. Cts. 


£> s. 


St. Mary's, Burlington . 


76 94 


17 7 


271 59 


61 4 


Trinity Church, Newark 


49 52 


11 3 


149 20 


33 1 


Christ Church, New Brunswick 


13 46 


3 


79 93 


18 


Christ's Church, Newton 


5 


1 2 


50 


11 5 


St. Mark's, Orange . 


7 54 


1 15 


49 15 


11 1 


St. Peter's, Morristown . 


12 36 


2 15 


32 6 


7 4 


Total 


1 Under the old 37 2 


Under the new 141 16 



Nor was this the only evident advance. Men, for the 
work of the ministry, are more needed in America than 
money for its conduct. So it must ever be to a great degree ; 
for personal service is a far harder sacrifice than any gifts 
of substance, and one, therefore, which requires a much 
stronger faith in him who offers it. Nor can anything more 
effectually repress this high spirit of self-sacrifice than con- 
ducting missionary exertions on a contracted scale, or em- 



* Taken from Caswall's America and American Church, p. 264. 



INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. 279 

ploying in the work the lower orders only of the ministry, as 
if it were unworthy of the higher. On this account the 
move now made in America promised the happiest results. 
The sending out the missionary bishop ; the attitude assumed 
by the whole Ohurch ; the new responsibility so solemnly 
professed ; all of these awoke attention to the real greatness 
of the undertaking, and so called forth minds of the highest 
temper to their appropriate Work. The first fruit of the new 
system may be found in Bishop Kemper's labors, who at 
once undertook that office for the due discharge of which 
he was admirably qualified. Wise, courteous, and con- 
ciliating, he was at the same time unwearied in energy and 
unsparing in exertion. The scattered settlers of his mis- 
sionary diocese have seen and heard the Witness for 
Christ, who has followed them into the moral wilderness ; 
and to the red man of Indian blood the same blessed mes- 
sage has been borne by the same chief minister of Christ. 
The band of presbyters is gathering around him. When 
he was consecrated there was but one in all Indiana ; in 
1838, eight clergymen were laboring amidst growing con- 
gregations. In Missouri, a college under the bishop's eye 
will soon spread more widely still the daily advancing in- 
fluence of the Church. Every where life is present and 
growth visible. In most of the older dioceses there is a 
marked and even rapid increase. Yirginia can again show 
eighty-four presbyters amongst her pastors, and, which she 
could not do of old, two bishops at their head. Vermont, 
which had long formed a part of the eastern diocese, elected, 
in 1832, its separate bishops and under his able and vigi- 
lant superintendence has been steadily growing in strength 
and vigor. The other members of the eastern diocese are 
looking on to a like partition, and like separate existence 
under their own bishops. New- York is dividing under the 
provisions of the general convention, into two independent 
sees. The clergy of Ohio, whose infant beginnings Bishop 
Chase had fostered, in 1838 numbered almost sixty. In 
Kentucky diocese they had multiplied from eight to twenty- 
one between 1832 and 1838 ; whilst in the same space, in 
Tennessee, three scattered presbyters have been exchanged 
for a resident diocesan, twelve settled clergymen, and an 



280 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

infant college for theological instruction. In 1836. Michi- 
gan received its bishop, and has since flourished greatly 
under his exertions ; while, in 1838. a diocese was organ- 
ised in the far southern state of Florida. 

Such have been some of the immediate results which 
have followed the awakening of the Church to the sense of 
her high duties and entrusted powers. That she may thus 
go on and prosper, must be the earnest prayer, not only of 
every English Churchman, but of every one who loves in 
truth the honor of His Master's name. 

For the work of foreign Missions she is eminently qual- 
ified. For this peculiar service she is rendered fitter even 
by her separation from the state ; unfettered by political 
connection, she may multiply at need her bishops, whilst 
the energy and maritime adventure of her anglo-Saxon race 
promise to secure admission for her sons to every nation of 
the earth. It may be that for this work specially her wit- 
ness has been thus raised up in the west ; it may be that 
for this the providence of God was over-ruling that want 
of faith, or that indolence, at. home which never suffered 
her to grow into a perfect Church whilst her connection 
with the mother-people lasted ; — that so she might spring 
at length into a sudden maturity, rich in hopes, rich in ex- 
pectations ; in the first possession of her powers, when she 
could thus use them without let or hindrance for the evan- 
gelizing of the world. ^ From us she must have learned a 

* It is impossible to omit here all mention of the noble efforts 
made in this great cause at Athens, by the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Hill. 

I have now before me, through the kindness of a friend, a letter 
from one well qualified to judge, written from Athens in October 
1844, and which contains the following sentences : — " Mr. Hill is the 

next man in Athens to King Otho An able and successful 

diplomatist here told me, that he was firmly persuaded that Mr. 
and Mrs. Kill had conferred far more signal benefits upon Greece 
than all the allied powers put together. His praise of Mrs. Hill 
was scarcely bounded ; he said that she was a woman of the rarest 
qualities of excellence, and that her heart, especially for goodness 
and stoutness (and it had been severely tried in both respects), could 
scarcely be equalled. He believed that they had been the cause of 
the educatiou of more than 20,000 Greeks. They taught and they 
sent forth those prepared to instruct ; and their example lias been 
followed, and is working a wonderful reformation. 



DEATH OF BISHOP WHITE. 281 

slower arid more cautious policy ; and even the achieve- 
ment of her national independence might not have broken 
through old habits, or set her free to labor in the ardor of 
her first love for every race which yet sits in darkness. 

May this, then, be her course ; may she be stirred up 
to earnest prayer, to high gifts of self-sacrifice, to untiring 
and well-ordered labors, and the grace of God will go 
along with her. Great achievements lie before her. An 
open field for noble and unlimited service invites all her 
energies. In her, too, is the ; ' salt of the earth'"' for the 
preservation of her own busy and restless people. The un- 
bounded western frontier, her fertile soil, her enterprising 
citizens, her mighty forests, her harbors, her traffic, and 
her merchandise — these may make America rich and 
luxurious, and for a season mighty among the people of the 
earth : but in the Church of Jesus, thus planted in the 
midst of her, and hi that alone, is to be found the pervad- 
ing, elevating, and enduring influence, which can make 
her truly great. 

This important convention rose on the 1st of Septem- 
ber, 1835, It was the last, as has been said, over which 
the venerable Bishop White presided. Long as it had 
been delayed, to him also the last summons was now 
sent. Throughout this year and until the following June, 
he continued as usual to officiate in his parish duties. 
Then severe illness bowed down his aged frame. Still his 
strength endured. He rallied from his sickness, and ap- 
peared to be again possessed of renovated vigor ; and it 
was hoped he might preside at the approaching consecra- 
tion of Dr. M'Coskry, elected bishop of Michigan. But his 
sands were fast running out. Xo violent disease re-ap- 
peared ; but the fountains were broken up, and his life 
ebbed gently from him. Surrounded by his family, and 
attended by Bishop Doane and Dr. M'Coskry, ' ; in full 
reliance on the alone merits of his Saviour, and blessed in 
realizing God's protecting care hi life and death,"* he 
meekly breathed his last, during the morning service of 
the Church he loved, on Sunday. July 17, 1636. 

* Life of Bishop White, by Dr. Bird Wilson, p. 267. 



282 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Of the character of this good man, little can be added 
to what has been already said in tracing the history with 
which his life is intertwined. He was doubtless an emi- 
nent instrument of G-od in laying the foundations of the 
western Church. For this his meek wisdom greatly fitted 
him ; probably with any other cast of character he could 
not have done what he now was able to effect. Though 
classed by his biographer with "the low-church divines, 
as they are called, of the Church of England," he yet 
maintained firmly the distinctive features of Church doc- 
trine. Speaking of a sermon preached by Bishop Moore 
before the convention of 1820, and of the offence given to 
some of the house of deputies by its maintaining the doc- 
trine of baptismal regeneration, he admits that on such an 
occasion •' all questions should be avoided in which the 
sense of the episcopal Church is doubtful." " But," he 
continues, "it is to be lamented that there should be 
brought under this head a doctrine which we have been 
taught to lisp in the earliest repetitions of our Catechism, 
which pervades sundry of our devotional services, especially 
the baptismal, which is affirmed in our Articles also, which 
was confessedly held and taught during the ages of the 
martyrs, and the belief of which was universal in the 
Church until it was perceived to be inconsistent with a 
religious theory, the beginning and the progress of which 
can be as distinctly traced as those of any error of po- 
pery "* 

He was not less distinct as to the ministry of the 
Christian Church. In his " Lecture on the Catechism," 
he lays it down that bishops, priests, and deacons, are of 
divine appointment ;t that succession is the only mode of 
transmitting the ministry which is of divine institution ; 
and that the door of entering opened by the Head of the 
Church is the only one through which the character of a 
pastor in the Church can be obtained. $ 

It is true that it is difficult always to reconcile his 

* Life by Dr. Bird Wilson, p. 229. 
t Ibid. p. 157, 158. 

% Vide letter of Bishop Hobart to Bishop White — in M'Vickar's 
Life, p. 413. 



CHARACTER OF BISHOP WHITE. 283 

practical concessions with the strictness of the principles he 
here lays down ; but, as we have seen, this very temper 
made him probably the fitter instrument for his own pecu- 
liar task. God works by various hands ; and the soft and 
yielding, so that they be faithful to His truth, have their 
own appointed task, even as to the sterner and more rug- 
ged, if his grace dwell in them, is allotted theirs. And to 
his light this venerable man would seem to have been 
always true. . He was bred, indeed, in a lower school both 
of faith and Christian feeling than that which was after- 
wards vouchsafed to the Church ; and from this cause 
there seems, to a certain extent, to have always hung 
about him a want of distinctness as to the higher Christian 
doctrines, and a corresponding want of warmth of spiritual 
character : but he was a truly humble man, and the bles- 
sing of the meek was his. His trust was only in his cru- 
cified Redeemer, and he did seek for the sanctifying pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit. The rock was under him ; and 
throughout a long life he never shrunk from any known 
duty. 

When, in the autumn of 1793, the yellow fever first 
appeared in Philadelphia, it spread a panic terror through 
all classes. The curse of a plague-struck city was upon 
the population. Along the deserted streets, amidst the 
vultures which prayed upon the offal, roamed only those 
fiends in human garb, who seek at such a moment for 
plunder amongst the dying and the dead. Three-fourths of 
all the inhabitants had fled from the place. The outcast, 
the infected, the dying, and the few whom love kept still 
around their beds, — these only remained. Dr. White was 
strongly urged to join the flying throng. The specious 
argument, that his single life was eminently precious, as- 
sailed him from the lips of those whom he esteemed for 
piety and loved with the simple warmth of family affec- 
tion. But he listened not to such suggestions. Where 
should the pastor be at such a time but with the sick and 
dying ? where the bishop but at the head of his flock ? 
Removing his family into the country, he remained at his 
own house, spending days and nights with the victims of 
the pestilence. One servant, who resolved to remain with 



284 AMERICAN CHUP.CH. 

his master, died in his sight ; but his faith was not shak- 
en ; and the plague passed off without his receiving any 
injury. 

Once again, thirty-nine years later, he was tried in the 
same way. The Asiatic cholera appeared at Philadelphia 
with all the terror of its appalling character and unknown 
course. His advanced years would then have furnished 
an easy excuse for one who sought to escape the supposed 
danger of intercourse with the infected. But the aged bi- 
shop was a man of another stamp ; and in his eighty-fifth 
year he might be seen daily in the cholera-hospital, pray- 
ing by the bedside of the dying patient. 

Nor, with so much that was naturally yielding in his 
temper, did he fail, when his judgment was decided, boldly 
to resist those with whose political opinions he was most 
predisposed to sympathise. In his later years a large sum 
of money was bequeathed by a wealthy Philadelphia mer- 
chant to the corporation of the city, for the foundation of 
an orphan college, on the sole condition that the boys should 
be kept without any instructions in any religious creed, 
from six to eighteen, that they might then " adopt such 
religious tenets as their matured reason should enable them 
to prefer.' 7 But the good bishop was not to be led away 
by this specious liberality. He at once condemned the 
conditions of the will, and addressed to the corporation an 
uncompromising and powerful appeal, in which he urged 
them "to a respectful but determined rejection of the 
trust." "It is," he allowed, " a great sacrifice ; but it 
cannot be too great when the acceptance of it would be an 
acknowledgement that religion, even in its simplest forms, 
is unnecessary to the binding men to their various du- 
ties."^ 



* Life of Bishop White, p. 244. The speech of D. Webster, when, 
in 1844, the question came, by appeal from the local jurisdiction of 
Philadelphia, before the supreme court of the United States, is full 
of a noble eloquence : " Would any Christian parent," he asks, " con- 
sider it desirable for his orphan children after his death to find re- 
fuge in this asylum . . . under all the circumstances and character- 
istics which belong to it ? Poor as children can be left, who 

would not rather trust them to the Christian charity of the world, 



faine. 



-T 



Alabama. 



Michigan. Florida. 




""""•■ 


~ 


*** 


™ 


— 


™ 


~ 




«.*»* 


«, 


**«***. 


PtaMit 


,-,..„„u. 


ta. 


. 


IM^H. 


D.M." 


J»l.t 




jmd.tr-.. 




Ezl 


"': s : s !° b T..... 


D..W.W*,, 


D ,. S .P, voo, t 


*^.. 


,,c,:;,, D 


,„,„ 


— ' 


L.., D . D 










































Ab,.., U »J.r,i.,D.D 








. 


=;;=; 








;„,,,.,„„' 




.;.... 




















1 


G.W.D...,D.I).t f .»W Mil). 


:::::::::j::::*:E:j:::, 


J.H.O&1J 




ISfr:::*::; 


=:il:::::::^Eii:::i:::::: 




;;;'.i'.;;;."^; 






: il] 


.. » • 


« . 


J [ " 


n. 


,,, 




« 


« 




- 










p- , - ' " 




"~ r--"p-fj^:: 


«pc: 




rt 










„.p c .?w:',..». 






— 







CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY. 285 

He died, as he had lived for eighty-eight years — with- 
out an enemy ; and, the first of that order which had heen 
the subject of such fierce suspicions, he was followed to 
the grave, through streets from which ordinary business 
had been spontaneously banished, by the public authorities, 
by the various literary and charitable bodies, and by thou- 
sands of unpurchased mourners. 

The thread of our history has brought us down to living 
men, and scenes in the great drama which are not yet acted 
out. Here it seems meet to pause, remembering the cau- 
tion of the wise historian, who, for safety's sake, would not 
" follow even truth too closely by the heels." We have 
brought down the history of the Church from its ambigu- 
ous colonial existence, through the struggles of the war of 
independence, to its firm and general establishment in the 
wide regions of the western continent. The table which 
concludes this chapter will show at one view the dates and 
order of the foundation of the various dioceses, and the con- 
secrations of the different bishops of America. 

It remains only, in the concluding chapter, to estimate 
the present position, and, as far as may be, the yet distant 
prospect, of the body the history of which thus lies before 
us. 

however uncertain it has been said to be, than place them where 
their physical wants and comforts would be abundantly attended to, 
but away from the solaces, the consolations, the graces, and the grace 
of the -Christian religion?" 



CHAPTER XII. 

Present influence of the Episcopal Church — Rapid extension — Esti- 
mated numbers — Clergy — Extent and population of diocesses — 
Influence on the moral character of the people — Favorable symp- 
toms — Sects — Revivals — Socinianism — Sober tone of the Church 
— Duelling — Its character in America — Instance — Church resists 
duels — Canon — Instance — Unfavorable symptoms — Divorce — 
Marriage — Treatment of the colored race — The great sore of Ame- 
rica — State of negroes in the south, religious, moral, physical — 
Slave-breeding states — Internal slave-trade — Duty of the Church 
to testify — Her silence — Participation — Palliation of these evils — 
State of the colored population in the north — Insults — Degrada- 
tion — Caste — Duty of the Church — Her silence — Case of General 
Theological Seminary — Alexander Crummell — Estimate of her in- 
fluence — Her small hold on the poor — Architecture and arrange- 
ment of churches — Pew-rent system — Prospects of the Church — 
Danger from indifference to formal truth — Chaplains to Congress 
— Thomas Jefferson— Romanism — Its schismatical rise in America 
— Spread in the West — Promises a refuge from the sects — Courts 
democracy — Main resistance from the Church — How she may be 
strong — Xeed of adhering to her own principles— Of a high moral 
tone — The slave -question — Favorable promise — Higher principles 
— More care of the poor — Colored race — Gains on the population 
— Conclusion. 

In forming an estimate of the present state of the Ameri- 
can Episcopal Church, there are several lines of inquiry 
which we may follow up. The first which naturally sug- 
gests itself is, its territorial and numerical hold upon the 
extent and population of the land. If, then, we compare 
the map of America with the fixed organization of the 
Church, we are at once struck with its rapid and univer- 
sal extension. Bishoprics, as well as what in the looser 
language of the west are termed dioceses,* are well-nigh 

* Districts in which a number of congregations are united together 
according to the rules of the American Church, and so termed M or- 



EXTENT AND NUMBERS OF THE CHURCH. 287 

co-extensive with the states of the Union. Through all 
that vast continent the living form of Church-polity has 
grown up as in a night, from the two bishops who landed 
at New- York on Easter Sunday, 1787. From puritan 
Massachusetts in the north, down to the slave-tilled bot- 
toms of torrid Louisiana, and from the crowded harbor of 
New- York back to the unbroken forests and rolling prairies 
of Illinois, the successors of the Twelve administer in 
Christ's name the rule of His spiritual kingdom. 

It is not so easy to estimate aright the proportion of 
the varied population of these wide tracts which have re- 
ceived this faith. The work of its leaven-like power and 
growing presence is noiseless and secret, and to obtain 
exact accuracy may be impossible ; but something may be 
done. It has been calculated, as the nearest approximation 
which can be obtained, that about 1,500,000 of the popu- 
lation of the United States belong to this communion ; its 
clergy amount to 1224.^ Here, therefore, also, is abund- 
ant proof of a wide-spread and increasing growth of this 
fair plant of God amongst our western children ; since the 
hindrances imposed by our carelessness or fear were swept 
away, and it has been allowed to strike at will its roots 
among them. 

But though there be goodly signs of life and growth in 
the extension of dioceses and the gathering in of souls, yet, 
on the other hand, when we see the vast extent over 
which diocesan authority is spread, it seems as if it must 
too often melt into a shadow : and when further we com- 
pare the number in the fold with the multitude without, 
we perceive that as yet the hold of this communion on the 
mass of living acting men can be but slight. It is too 
plain, that in many districts it consists only of a scattered 
handful here and there, and has not yet gathered in with 
a strong arm the ripe harvest of souls into the garner of 
the Lord. The annexed table will show at one view the 
number of the bishops and clergy in each state, and op- 
posite to them the number of the square miles over which 

ganized," and capable of sending delegates to convention, but which 
do not yet possess a bishop. 

* Church Almanac for 1844: New- York. 



288 



AMERICAN CHURCH. 



their charge extends, and of the masses for whom they 
labor. As a general conclusion, we may see that these 22 
bishops and 1202 clergy are ministering among a mass of 
human beings, of all colors of belief, or of no belief at all, 
amounting to above 17 millions, who are scattered over an 
extent of above one million of square miles. 



EishopB. 


Cler«ry. 


States. 


Population. 
501.793 


Square miles. 


0* 


6 


Maine 


32,000 





10 


New Hampshire 




284.574 


9,280 




29 


Vermont . 




291.948 


10,200 




58 


Massachusetts 




637.699 


;.- •■"■ 




25 


Rhode Island . 




108,830 


1,095 




102 


Connecticut 




310.015 


4,800 




202 


New-York 




1,293,783 


21,751 




105 


Western New-Yorl 




1,135,138 


21,463 




47 


New Jersey 




373,306 


6,600 




115 


Pennsylvania . 




1,7-24.022 


46,000 




11 


Delaware 






2.120 




93 


Maryland 




469.232 


10.930 




98 


Virginia . 




1,239.797 


64,000 




32 


North Carolina 




753,110 


43.800 




49 


South Carolina 




594,398 


30,000 




62 


Ohio 




1,519.467 


50.000 




14 


Georgia . 




770,000 


58.000 




22 


Kentucky 




790,000 


40.000 




12 


Tennessee 




829.210 


40.000 


Of 


11 


Mississippi 




375,651 


48,000 




7 


Louisiana 




351,176 


43.220 




24 


Michigan 




211,705 


55.000 


0+ 


10 


Alabama . 




650.000 


46,000 


14 


Illinois . • 




474,404 


59,500 





4 


Florida . 




54.207 


' 87,750 


o§ 


15 


Indiana . 




683,317 


35,000 


0§ 


10 


Missouri . 




381,102 


64,000 


1 


9 


Wisconsin 




30,852 




0§ 

Oil 


4 


Iowa 




43.063 




o 


Arkansas 




95,642 


58,000 


22 


1202 




17,055,531 


1,001,309 


* Administered 


by the Bishop of Rhode Island. 


f Administered by the Bishop of Tennessee. 




j Administered by the Bishop of Louisiana. 




§ These three administered by the missionary bisko 


p residing- in • 


Wisconsin. 




|| Administered by the Bishop of Tennessee. 


1 



better measure of the influence of 
Le of the west is afforded by its actual 



But another and 
this body on the peopl 
power over morals and opinions. Now, tried by this test, 
the conclusion does not differ greatly from that yielded by 



INCLINATION OF THE SECTS. 289 

the last. Much, undoubtedly, it is doing, and has done. 
No where have the restless waters of the multitude of 
sects tossed themselves in wilder madness than in the new 
world. The line of this history forbids any minute exam- 
ination of their state ; but the general aspect they present 
towards the Episcopalian body must be noticed.^ Between 
it and some of them there is as close an approximation as 
there can be without union. To many of the separation, 
Christ's truth has never been proposed in any other form 
than that in which they hold it. In them there has been 
no stubborn rejection of a higher teaching, but rather a 
diligent use of all which has been vouchsafed to them. 
On such men the blessing of God has visibly rested. No 
unprejudiced observer can doubt that His grace has wrought 
through them His blessed work for multitudes around them. 
As their light increases, many of these join openly the 
Church's ranks. So far, indeed, does this migration pre- 
vail, that no fewer than one-half of the existing clergy, and 
even of the bishopsf themselves, have been won over from 
the sects. And this process seems still to be extending. 
At Boston there is now a striking revulsion of feeling to- 
wards the Church, of whose exclusively apostolical con- 
stitution many of the ministers amongst the sects are now 
convinced. Their present position seems to be one which 
honest men cannot long consent to occupy. They " admit 
the doctrine of the visible Church, and the apostolical suc- 
cession, and consequently the schism of which the original 
founders of their sect were guilty;" but claim " prescrip- 
tion as effacing the flaw in the original deed." Thus it is 
their view, that sectarians, as a body, ought to reunite 
themselves to the Church, and that each individual ought 
to endeavor earnestly to bring about this reunion ; whilst, 
without it, he would not be justified in straggling from his 
appointed place in the economy of Providence. $ This po- 
sition seems to imply much the same dishonesty of mind 
as would lead an English Churchman, whose affections 
had been unhappily seduced to Rome, to remain within 

* See preface. \ Caswall, p. 332. 

% Letters from America, vol. ii. p. 160. The exact words are not 
given. 

13 



290 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the English Church, seeking to bring her again under the 
bonds and corruption of the Papacy. Still, the effect on 
rninds so disposed, of the institutions and doctrines after 
which they are reaching forth, cannot easily be overrated. 

Greatly is such an iufluence needed by these bodies. 
Abundant as some of them have no doubt been in faith and 
good works, yet, taken as a whole, they signally illustrate 
the absurdities and degradation to which religious license, 
unlimited by fixed forms of belief, is ever prone to run. 
The rise and prevalence of Mormonism is a startling fact 
in the religious history of man ; and the same features, 
though less broadly marked, may be traced in many other 
quarters. Religion has always exhibited a tendency to 
wear cut within a few generations where it has not been 
kept fixed and permanent by the external framework at 
first appointed by the Lord. That such has been the case 
in America we have a striking testimony in the writings 
of Bishop Chase, himself, as has been seen,* 1 sprung from 
a dissenting family which had maintained its early princi- 
ples with unusual faithfulness. " When the Puritans,'" he 
says,t " by leaving the Church, broke the vessel, the oil 
was split upon the ground ; and though some of it may be 
gathered in the sherds and burn brightly for a time, yet 
the flame soon expires, and all around is left in darkness." 
Such was the existing state of things he found in Vermont. 
Catechisms had been laid aside ; to teach their children 
the fundamental principles of the Christian faith was 
deemed an infringement on their natural and inalienable 
rights ; by far the greater part had not been baptised ; and 
the general ignorance was turned to their own purposes 
by various classes of infidels. 

Such has been too often, in the west, the unhappy pro- 
gress of declining faith ; and so the ground has been left 
open for increasing evil. Every fantastic opinion which 
has disturbed the peace of Christendom has been re-pro- 
duced in stronger growth on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Division has grown up in all its rankness, and seeded freely 
on every side a new crop of errors. Even amongst those 

* P. 239. f Reminiscences, p. 100. 



TENDENCY TO SOCINIANISM. 291 

sects which have retained the largest measure of original 
truth, the effects of this state of things are visible. The 
history of their " Revivals," as they are termed, with their 
"new measures," "anxious seats," "itinerant evangelists," 
and " protracted meetings," sometimes of forty days' con- 
tinuance,^ is little else than a record of the wildest extra- 
vagance,! which, in the judgment of the more sober even 
of their own body, "threatens to pour forth a host of ar- 
dent, inexperienced, imprudent young men, to obliterate 
civilization, and roll back the wheels of time to semi-bar- 
barism, until New-England of the west shall be burnt 
over, and religion disgraced and trodden down, as in some 
parts of New-England it was done eighty years ago, when 
laymen and women, Indians and negroes, male and female, 
preached and prayed, and exhorted, until confusion itself 
became confounded." " This will unavoidably produce 
infidels, scoffers, unitarians, and universalists, on every 
side, increasing the resistance seven-fold to evangelical doc- 
trine." t 

This has been already the fruit of these fierce excite- 
ments. The children of " the pilgrims" have openly cast 
off their fathers' creed, and glory in doctrines which were 
marked out in the days of New-England's settlement for 
the direst anathema. In Massachusetts § the Socinians 

* Drs. Reed and Matheson's Yisit, vol. ii. p. 40. 

f The following extract from an unsuspected quarter will show 
the true nature of these artificial heats. " A revival-preacher, after 
delivering a sermon, called on ' the anxious ' to meet him in the lec- 
ture-room. About 200 obeyed. He called on them to kneel in 
prayer ; and he offered an alarming and terrific prayer. They arose. 
1 As many of you,' he said, ' as have given yourselves to God in 
that prayer, go into the new convert room.' Upwards of twenty 
went. 'Now,' he said to the remainder, 'let us pray.' He prayed 
again in like manner. He then challenged those who had given 
themselves to God in that prayer to go into the new convert room. 
Another set followed. This was repeated four times. The next 
morning he left the town, having previously sent a notice to the 

newspapers, stating that Mr. had preached there lastnio-ht, and 

that 61 converts professed religion." Drs. Reed and Matheson's 
Visit, vol. ii. p. 29. 

+ Letters from Dr. Beecher, — Reed and Matheson, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35. 

§ Reed and Matheson, vol. ii. p. 60. 



292 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

have 130 Societies and 110 ministers : in the town of Bos- 
ton their congregations average from 600 to 1000. Theirs, 
" if not the religion of the numerical majority, is that of 
the opulent and official classes, who compose the aristocracy 

of the city It is said, indeed, that with whatever 

religion men begin life, when they get very rich, and with- 
draw from active business, they" # join this party. In its 
tenets they find repose from the extravagant excitement of 
the other sects ; they are freely allowed such unlimited 
measures of infidelity or doubt as suit their own inclina- 
tions ; and they find themselves surrounded by those who 
take the lead in every walk of social life. This state of 
things has long been growing up : the Church was too weak 
around the Puritans to keep them by its indirect influence 
to the foundations of the faith ; and no sect that has ever 
yet arisen has possessed, within itself, the gift of perma- 
nence. Here the declension began early ; and so gradually 
did their deadly error overspread them, that Boston was 
not conscious of the change until it was incautiously dis- 
closed by an English brother. It was then found, on in- 
quiry, that " in Boston every thing was gone except the 
old South Meeting; and, within a radius of fifteen miles, 
not ten ministers could be found of the Congregational 
order holding the ' truth as it is in Jesus.' "f 

Against such declensions the presence of the Church is, 
under the blessing of Almighty God, an appointed safe- 
guard. From the excitements which sweep at times over 
the sects, burning all to-day with an intemperate heat, 
and leaving all behind them waste and bare, even those 
amongst her pastors have been free, who, from warmth of 
natural temper or doctrinal views, have most addressed 
themselves to the religious feelings of their flock. J And 
thus not only have they withheld from their own people 
these withering blights, but they have done much for all 
denominations round them. It was the remark of a So- 
cinian gentleman, from Massachusetts, as floating down 
the Connecticut river (in 1834), he noticed the Episco- 

* Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 450. 

f Reed and Matheson, ut sup. 

% Life of Bp. Moore of Virginia, by Dr. Henshaw, p. 101. 



DUELS. 293 

pal churches on each side the stream. " If those churches 
had been in Massachusetts, there would have been few 
Unitarians." 5 * The influence thus exercised can scarcely be 
over-rated. It breaks out visibly in smaller things,- — as in 
the universal observance of Good Friday in Connecticut, 
from deference to Churchmen, t — a*nd in greater matters 
is always in action. The fixed creed of the Church, its 
settled liturgy, its decent and reverent forms, its educated 
ministry, its tone of practical reality ; these are felt con- 
tinually as restraints to some, and patterns to others. 
Amidst the madness of the angry waves, one bark holds 
its anchorage, and becomes to those around it a witness for 
fixedness and truth. 

On the general character of society it exerts continual 
influence. Throughout the states it ranks amongst its 
members those who, from position and superior education, 
must ultimately fix the standard of feeling : and against 
some of the great evils which infect American society it 
has raised its solemn and not wholly ineffectual protest. 

Thus, to take one example : duels, such as barbarous 
times can scarcely parallel, are not uncommon in America. 
Utterly unchristian as are those we know in England, they 
are wholly of another character from these, of which ven- 
geance and the thirst for blood are undisguised features. 
How little public opinion has as yet condemned them, a 
single narrative will show. It is a rule of Congress that 
when any member dies during the sitting of the houses, he 
shall be honored with a public funeral. During the win- 
ter session of 1838, two members of the house of represen- 
tatives at Washington quarrelled, and met to fight a duel. 
Rifles were, as is usual, the selected weapons. At a dis- 
tance of eighty yards they exchanged fire without effect. 
After an hour's pause they were placed again, and each 
taking deliberate aim, fired a second time with the same re- 
sult. A longer pause than the preceding followed, during 
which it was arranged, that if at the next fire neither party 
were killed or wounded, the distance between them should 
be shortened. No such precaution, however, was needful 

* Caswall's America, p. 149. f lb. p. 145. 



294 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

to secure the necessary bloodshed, for at the next fire the 
receiver of the challenge fell, and died within five minutes. 
Three days later the senators and whole population of the 
town, male and female, " the ladies thronging the galle- 
ries," filled the hall of representatives, to honor the fallen 
duellist with a public* funeral. At twelve o'clock the 
speaker of the house was seate d in the chair, the bier be- 
fore him, whilst the members, the judges of the supreme 
court, the heads of departments, the secretaries of state, 
and the president and vice-president of the United States, 
lined the hall around the coffin. Then came the mum- 
mery of religion, with " appropriate extemporaneous pray- 
ers from the chaplain of the senate," and then "a funeral 
address by the chaplain of the house of representatives. "* 
Both the chaplains were Methodists of different kinds ; 
and it was but a sorry sacrifice to violated principle, that 
the honor of the public funeral should be clouded by an un- 
avoidable censure upon duelling, in the funeral address. 
Far different has been the conduct of the Church as to 
this system of detestable enormities. As early as 1808, 
convention had resolved, " That the ministers of this Church 
ought not to perform the funeral service in the case of any 
person who shall give or accept a challenge to a duel."t 
This raised a new standard, and from this we do not find 
them shrinking. Such an instance stands on record in 
Bishop Hobart's correspondence. " I have been severely 
tried" — one of his friends writes to him : "it has pleased 
the Almighty, in the order of His providence, to exact from 
me a proof of fidelity to His commands. Adversity has 
come on me in the hideous form of dishonor : it has struck 

me where I was most exposed For one accustomed, 

as I have been, to the applause of the world, on whose ear 
the voice of censure has scarcely ever come in the slightest 
whisper, to be denounced by a man who has filled the se- 
cond command in our Virginian army, and a seat in the 
senate of the United States, as a hypocrite and coward, 

* J. S. Buckingham's America, vol. i. pp. 272, 273. 

f Journals of Convention of 1816, p. 254, This was modified in 
the Convention, but only so far as to withdraw the application of the 
resolution from those who had since manifested penitence. 



DIVORCE. 295 

without being allowed to repel the latter charge but by 

confirming the former to be thus persecuted, is a 

trial which has required all my piety to sustain without 

sinking beneath it I am justly though severely 

chastised : I bow submissively to the Cross, where my 
Saviour ignominiously expired. Blessed Jesus, inspire Thy 
poor follower with the humility which illustrated Thy life, 
Thy sufferings, and Thy death.' ;# 

One such testimony against this unchristian custom is 
beyond all price in a land so governed by opinion as the 
United States. 

These, and many more, are the favorable features of 
the picture. There are others of a different character. — 
and they must not be withheld. And to touch first on a 
subject which has always been an especial charge of the 
Christian Church ; she has not in America maintained the 
outworks of domestic purity, by guarding carefully the 
sanctity of holy matrimony. Divorces are allowed on slight 
and insufficient grounds.! To divorce his wife, or even to 
fail in the attempt to obtain a divorce from the state, 
would not greatly impair the reputation, even of one in holy 
orders. On this point the Roman Catholics in America 
have maintained a Christian strictness on which the Pro- 
testant communion has never ventured. Allied to this are 
many kindred flaws ; marriages are publicly allowed with- 
in some at least of the prohibited degrees ; the divorced 
are speedily re-married ; and their second nuptials labor 
under no reproach. Again, amongst our western brethren, 

* M'Vickar's Life of Bishop Hobart.pp. 45T, 45S. 

f The facility with which divorces are obtained in some states is 
illustrated by a fact, mentioned to the author by a friend (the Rev. 
H. Caswall). which would be highly ludicrous, if it did not involve 
such serious considerations. An aged couple in Kentucky, remark- 
able for their long-continued domestic happiness, were marked out 
for a practical joke. A petition was sent into the state-legislature, 
praying, on some trivial ground for a divorce. The bill passed un- 
opposed ; and in three weeks, to their horror, they found themselves 
divorced : they absolutely separated, the wife returning to her 
friends, and were afterwards solemnly re-married. — Perhaps it may 
3 safe to draw any very broad inference from such an incident 
as this. 



296 a:\ierican church. 

the marriage ceremonial is rarely performed within the 
chnrch : a private room, and often a late hour in the day, 
are its usual place and time, to the grievous loss of rever- 
ential decency. 

And now to turn to a subject less exclusively ecclesias- 
tical. In forming an estimate of the moral influence of the 
Episcopalian body, we cannot fail to notice its bearing on 
the treatment of the colored race. This is in America the 
great question of the present generation : socially, politi- 
cally, morally, religiously, there is none which can compare 
with it. Never in the history of any people was the 
righteous retribution of the holy and living God more dis- 
tinctly marked than in the manifold evils which now 
trouble America for her treatment of the African race. 
Like all other sinful courses, it has brought in, day by day, 
confusion and entanglement into all the relations of those 
contaminated by it. It is the cause which threatens to 
disorganise the union ; it is the cause which upholds the 
power of mobs and " Lynching ; " it is the occasion of 
bloodshed and violated law ; it is, throughout the south, 
the destroyer of family purity, the hindrance to the growth 
of civilization and refinement ; it is the one weak point of 
America as a nation, exposing her to the deadliest internal 
strife, that of an internecine war, whenever a foreign 
enemy should find it suit his purpose to arm the blacks 
against their masters. Further, like all other great and 
established evils, it is most difficult to devise any escape 
out of the coils which it has already wound around every 
civil and social institution ; whilst every day of its per- 
mitted continuance both aggravates the evil, and increases 
the difficulty of its ultimate removal. This, then, is ex- 
actly one of those sore evils of which the Church of Christ 
is the appointed healer. She must, hi His name, rebuke 
this unclean Spirit : she who has been at all times the 
best adjuster of the balance between the rich and poor, 
between those who have and those who want ; she who 
has redressed the wrongs of those who have no helper ; 
she who, wherever she has settled, has changed slaves or 
serfs, by whatever title they are known, into freemen and 
peasants ; — she must do this in the west, or the salt of the 



EVILS OF SLAVERY. 297 

earth hath lost its savor, and is given over, with all things 
around, to the wasting of that utter and extreme corrup- 
tion which she should have arrested. 

Now, to see how far the Church has fulfilled this her 
vocation, we must have distinctly before us the real pos- 
ture of this question in America. Of the twenty-six states, 
thirteen are slave-states ; admitting, that is, within their 
own borders, the institution of slavery as a part of their 
institutions ; and of these, five — Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, and, in part, Tennessee — are slave-selling, 
whilst those south of them are slave-buying states. 

It will, therefore, be seen at once, that in the various 
districts of the union widely different parts of the system 
are at work. But its curse is upon all. Chiefly does it 
rest upon the south. There, to his own, and little less 
to his master's degradation, the slave is held in direct 
personal bondage, and accounted merely as a chattel. 
Hence, at the caprice of his owner, he is treated not unfre- 
quently with fearful cruelty : though these, it may be 
granted, are not the ordinary cases ; since, except under 
the impulses of passion, no rational owner will misuse his 
own chattels. It is not, therefore, for these instances of 
cruelty, fearful as they occasionally are, that the system 
will be chiefly odious in the Christian's eyes.* Nor will 

* Not to quote any of those occasional barbarities which may be 
turned in some measure aside as extreme cases, it is impossible to 
deny the ordinary cruelty of the system, when every southern news- 
paper abounds in such advertisements as these : " Ten dollars re- 
ward for my woman Siby, very much scarred about the neck and 
ears by whipping." Mobile Commercial Advertiser. — " Committed 
to jail, a negro slave ; his back is very badly scarred." Planters 9 
Intelligencer, Sept. 26, 1838. — " Runaway, negress Caroline ; had on 
a collar with one prong turned down." Bee, Oct. 27, 1837. — " De- 
tained at the police jail the negro wench Myra ; has several marks 
of lashing, and has irons on her feet." Bee, June 9, 1838. — " Run- 
away, a negro woman and two children. A few days before she 
went off, I burnt her with a hot iron on the left side of her face ; I 
tried to make the letter M." Standard, July 18, 1838. — "Brought 

to jail, John , left ear cropt." Macon Telegraph, Dec. 25. 

1837. — "Runaway, a negro, name Humbledon ; limps on his left 
foot, where he was shot a few weeks ago while a runaway." Vicks- 
burg Register, Sept. 5, 1838. — " Runaway, a black woman ; has a 
13* 



298 AMERICAN CHURCH 

it be from any notions of the abstract and inalienable rights 
of man. On these, in their common signification of the 
possession of political power, we do not touch ; it is with 
the want of personal freedom we are concerned ; nor is it 
needful to assert, that slavery is, under all circumstances, 
directly forbidden by the law of God. It is enough for our 
purpose, that as administered in America, it is a violation 
of the Christian precept, " Honor all men." That by 
its denial of all family life, its necessary irreligion, and its 
enforced ignorance, it deprives the slave of the privileges 
of redeemed humanity, and is directly opposed to the idea 
of the Christian revelation. To maintain this ground it 
is not necessary to assert that no slaves are happy in 
their servitude. For the happiest slave in American ser- 
vitude is the greatest proof of the evil of the system. He 
is most utterly debased by it, who can be happy in such a 
state. What that state is is plain enough. The common lan- 
guage of the slave-states, which has given to all those 
who labor the title of "mean whites," is abundant proof 
of their own estimate of slavery. But, further, as a general 
rule, the slave is not happy. The advocates of the system 
confess this in a thousand ways. Their columns of adver- 
tisements for runaways, their severe laws against those 
who aid or harbor fugitives, their occasional gilts of liberty 
to slaves w T ho have wrought some great act of public 
good, their fierce jealousy of all speech or action which 
threatens ever so remotely their property in man, all be- 
speak the same secret conviction : — they do know the 
misery of slavery. The testimony of the Canadian ferry- 
man,^ who described the leap of the escaped slave, when 
the boat reaches the British shore, as unlike any other, is 
not more directly to the point. 

Accordingly, the master-evil of the south is, that the 
slaves are not treated as having souls ; they are often petted, 
often treated like spoiled children, never as men. On this 
point there is no dispute. " Generally speaking they are 
a nation of heathen in the midst of the land. They are 

scar on her back and right arm, caused by a rifle-balL Natchez 
Courier, June 15, 1832. 
* Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i. p. 114. 



MORALS OF SLAVERY. 299 

without liope and without Grod in the world. "* "They 
have no bible to read by their own firesides ; they have no 
family-altars ; and when in affliction, sickness, or death, 
they have no minister to address to them the consolations 
of the gospel."! They are destitute of the privileges of 
the gospel, and ever will be, under the present state of 
things. They may justly be considered the heathen of 
this country, and will bear a comparison with heathen in 
any country in the world. "$ " Throughout the bounds of 
the Charleston Synod there are at least one hundred thou- 
sand slaves, speaking the same language as the whites, 
who have never heard of the plan of salvation by a Re- 
deemer." § And this is the fruit of no accident, — it is 
inherent hi the system. The black must be depressed be- 
low the level of humanity to be kept down to his condition, 
On this system his master dare not treat him as a man. 
To teach slaves to read is forbidden under the severest 
penalties hi almost every slave-state. In ]N"orth Carolina, 
to teach a slave to read or write, or give him any book 
(the Bible not excepted), is punished with thirty -nine 
lashes or imprisonment, if the offender be a free negro ; 
with a fine of 200 dollars if he be a white. In Georgia 
this fine is 500 dollars ; and the father is not suffered to 
teach his own half-caste child to read the Scriptures.il 

The moral state of such a population need not be de- 
picted. The habit of despising the true redeemed human- 
ity in those around them grows always upon the licentious 
and the covetous, as they allow themselves to use their 
fellows as the mere instruments of their gam or pleasure ; 
and in the slave-states this evil habit reigns supreme. The 
quadroon IT girls are educated in the south to live in bonds 

* Sermon by Rev. C. C. Jones, preached in Georgia before two 
associations of planters, 1831. 

f Report in Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, 1833. 

% Report of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, to whom 
was referred the subject of the religious instruction of the colored 
population, 1834. 

§ Charleston S. C. Observer. 

I Caste and Slavery in the American Church, p. 27 ; a noble and 
heart-stirring protest. 

^[ The mixed breed of the third generation. 



300 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

of shame with their white masters . With the slave-popuia- 
tion itself the licentiousness of the whites is utterly unbridled ; 
and by this, all the ties of nature are dissolved. Family - 
life amongst the slaves cannot exist ; its fountains are al- 
ways liable to be poisoned by arbitrary power. White fa- 
thers view their own slave-born children as chattels. They 
work, they sell them. By law they cannot teach them, or 
set them free ; for the jealousy of slave-state legislation 
lays it down as a first principle, that every slave must have 
a master " to see to him." 

Here, then, in brief, is the curse of the southern-most 
or slave-buying states ; — the holding property in man, keep- 
ing men in servile bondage, using persons as things, re- 
deemed men as soulless chattels ; — this is its essence. 
Here the testimony of the Church must be against this first 
vicious principle. This has been the example set to God's 
witnesses in this generation by their fathers in the faith. 
They protested against such dominant iniquities, and they 
delivered their own souls, and saved us their children from 
the eating canker of a blood-stained inheritance. "Let no 
man from henceforth," said the Christian Council of Lon- 
don, in 1102^ " presume to carry on that wicked traffic, 
by which men in England have been hitherto sold like 
brute animals." This must be the Church's rule on the 
banks of the Mississippi, as it was on those of the Thames. 
So much for the extreme south. 

As we come one degree northward, other features meet 
us. In the slave-selling states there is added to the evils 
of the south the execrable trade of breeding slaves for sale. 
By it " the c Ancient Dominion' is converted into one grand 
menagerie, where men are reared for the market like oxen 
for the shambles."! This is no figure of speech. The 
uramber of slaves exported, from Virginia alone, for sale in 
the southern states, in one year, 1835-36, amounted to 

* "Concilium Loudinense, a. d. 1102, reg. Angliae Hen. I. 3, sta- 
tutum est : xxviii. iNequis illud nefarium negotium, quo hactenus 
homines in Anglia solebant velut bruta animalia yenundari, deiuceps 
uilatenus facere prsesumat." — Wilkins, Concilia , vol. i. p. 383. 

f Speech of Thomas Jefferson Randolph in the legislature of Vir- 
ginia in 1832. 



SLAVE-BREEDING- STATES. SOl 

forty thousand ;* whilst those imported from all quarters 
into the states of Louisiana. Mississippi. Alabama, and Ar- 
kansas, were reckoned in the year 1836 as not fewer than 
25, 000. t " Dealing in slaves," says a Baltimore news- 
paper:]: of 1829, " has become a large business ; establish- 
ments are made in several places in Maryland and Virgi- 
nia, at which they are sold like cattle : these places of 
deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with iron 
thumb- screws and gags." 

The abominations of this trade must not pollute these 
pages. They may be readily conceived. But as a neces- 
sary part of such a traffic, an internal slave-trade, with its 
well-known horrors, re-commences. Here are slave-auc- 
tions, with all their instant degradation, and all their con* 
sequent destruction of family and social life . § Here are 

* Virginia Times. j- Xatchez Courier. 

X The Baltimore (Maryland) Register. 

§ One incident will tell this whole tale. "A gentleman of Virgi- 
nia sold a female slave. The party professing to buy not being pre- 
pared to make the necessary payment, the slave was to be re-sold. 
A concealed agent of the trade bought her and her two children, as 
for his own service; where her husband, also a slave in the town, 
might visit her and them. Both the husband and wife suspected 
that she would be privately sent away. The husband, in their com- 
mon agony, offered to be sold, that he might go with her. This was 
declined. He resolved on the last effort, of assisting her to escape. 
That he might lay suspicion asleep, he went to take leave of her 
and his children, and appeared to resign himself to the event. This 
movement had its desired effect ; suspicion was withdrawn both from 
him and his wife, and he succeeded in emancipating them. Still, 
what was to be done with his treasure, now he had obtained it ? 
Flight was impossible, and nothing remained but concealment ; and 
concealment seemed hopeless, for no place would be left unsearch- 
ed, and punishment would fall on the party who should give them 
shelter. However, they were missing ; and they were sought for 
diligently, but not found. Some month's afterwards, it was casually 
observed that the floor under a slave's bed (the sister of the man) 
looked dirty and greasy. A board was taken up, and there lay the 
mother and her children on the clay, and in an excavation of three 
feet by five 1 It is averred that they had been there in a cold and 
enclosed space, hardly large enough for their coffin (buried alive 
there), for six months ! 

" This is not all. The agent was only provoked by this circum- 
stance 1 He demanded the woman ; and though every one was 



302 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

droves of chained negroes marched under the whip, two 
and two, from the breeding district of Virginia to the la- 
bor-markets of G-eorgia and Alabama. 

Here, then, as in the farther south, the testimony of 
the Church must be uncompromising and explicit. Xo 
motives of supposed expediency, no possible amount of dan- 
ger, can justify her silence. She is set to bear a witness ; 
a witness against the evils around her ; a witness at all 
hazards; a witness to beat any time attested, if so it needs 
must be, by bearing any amount of persecution. She and 
she only can do this. The exceeding jealousy of the seve- 
ral states makes them resent with peculiar warmth any 
interference from without. The regulation of its internal 
concerns, and so the whole continuance and system of south- 
ern slavery. is solely under the jurisdiction of the several states. 
Congress cannot mitigate, much less abolish it. It can come 
before Congress only incidentally, — as, for instance, on the 
question of admitting a new slave-state into the union. 
Even moral influence from without is bitterly resented by 
the south. This is its ground of quarrel with the aboli- 
tion-societies ; with which the general government has so 
far sympathised as to leave unredressed the violation of the 
southern post-orhce, whereby abolition-papers are uniformly 
excluded from the south. Thus, at this moment, improve- 
ment can only arise from a higher standard of internal 
principle on this great question. This it is the business of 
the Church to create. She must assert her Catholic cha- 
racter on behalf of these unhappy cast- away s. In other 
respects, there is no country upon earth so fitted by pre-dis- 
posing elements for uniting in one visible body all the com- 
pany of Christ's redeemed. Gathered, as they are, from 
all countries, Americans are made partakers, even from na- 
tural causes, of a common political and social life. The 
strong lethargic common sense of the Dutch and the gay 
vivacity of the French, the phlegm of the German and the 
buoyant thoughtlessness of the Irish, the shrewd money- 
clamorous to redeem her and return her to her husband, he would not 
sell ! She was taken to his slave-pen, and has disappeared ! The 
man — most miserable man ! — still exists in the town." Drs. Reed 
and Matheson, ut supra, yoL ii. p. 188. 



DOES THE CHURCH PROTEST ? 303 

getting temper of the Yankee and the hospitable elegance 
of the southern gentleman. — are all here fused into one 
common mass. From this universal brotherhood the 
African alone is shut altogether out. Him the Church 
must take by the hand, and owning him as one of Christ's 
body, must lead him into the family of man. Not that 
she is bound to preach insurrection and rebellion. Far from 
it. It is quite easy to enforce upon the slave his duties, 
under a system, the unrighteousness of which is, at the same 
time, clearly stated. His bonds are illegal ; but it is God's 
arm, and not his own violence, which must break them. 
Let the clergy of the south preach submission to the slave, 
if at the same time they declare to his master that these, 
for whom Christ died, are now no longer slaves, but breth- 
ren beloved ;* and that a system which withholds from 
them their Christian birthright is utterly unlawful ; that 
it is one which . the master, not the slave, is bound to set 
liimself honestly to sweep away. Above all should they, 
at any cost and by any sacrifice, protest in life and by act 
against this grievous wrong. The greater the cost, and the 
more painful the sacrifice, the clearer will be their testi- 
mony, and the more it will avail : to them it is given not 
only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. 

What witness, then, has as yet been borne by the 
Church in these slave-states against this almost universal 
sin ? How has she fulfilled her vocation ? She raises no 
voice against the predominant evil; she palliates it hi 
theory ; and in practice she shares hi it. The mildest and 
most conscientious of the bishops of the south are slave- 
holders themselves. Bishop Moore of Virginia writes to 
Bishop Ravenscroft :f "The good and excellent girl pre- 
sented to my daughter by Mrs. Ravenscroft paid the debt 
of nature on the 4th." She was treated, it is true, with 
all the indulgence which she could receive, but still, favor- 
ite as she was, she was a slave ; and, after her death, was 
laid "in the colored burial-ground, which is not enclosed, 
and therefore much exposed, and where the grave was 

* u Not now as a servant (lit. a slave, SovXo;,) but above a servant 
a brother beloved." Philemon 16. 
t Life of Bishop Moore, p. 2S2. 



304 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

liable to be disturbed." This is no rare instance. The 
Bishop of Georgia has openly proposed to maintain " the 
Montpelier Institute" by the produce of slave-labor; and 
" The Spirit of Missions," edited with the sanction of the 
Church, and under the eye of the bishop (Onderdonk) of 
New- York, proposes to endow a mission-school in Louisi- 
ana, with a plantation to be worked by slaves, who should 
be encouraged to redeem themselves by extra hours of labor, 
before day in the morning and after night in the evening ; 
and should, when thus redeemed, be transported to Liberia, 
and the price received for them laid out in "purchasing in 
Virginia or Carolina a gang of people who may be nearly 
double the number of those sentaway."^ 

Nor are these merely evil practices into which, una- 
wares and against their principles, these men have fallen. 
In a sermon preached before the Bishop of North Carolina 
in 1834, and published with his special commendation, it 
is openly asserted, that "no man or set of men are entitled 
to pronounce slavery wrong ; and we may add, that as it 
exists in the present day it is agreeable to the order of Divine 
Providence;" whilst the Bishop of South Carolina,! in an 
address to the convention of his diocese, denounced "the 
malignant philanthropy of abolition." 

Such' are the fearful features of the life of Churchmen 
in the south. Nor is it any real lessening of this guilt to 
say that it is shared by all the Christian sects. The charge 
is, indeed, far too nearly true. There is no doubt that the 
evils of the system may be found still ranker and more 
gross amidst the prevailing sects of Baptists, Independents, 
Methodists, and Presbyterians. J But this is no excuse. It 
is the first duty of the Church to reprove the sins of others, 
not to adopt them into her own practice ; to set, and not 
to take the tone. The cruelty of their tender mercies 
should lead her to speak out more plainly ; it should force 
her zealously to cleanse herself from their stain, and then 
fearlessly leave the issue to her God. But she is silent 
here ; and to her greater shame it must be added, that 

* Caste and Slavery, p. 34. f Bishop Bowen. 

% Vide Slavery and the Internal Slave-trade in America, pp. 
133-145, for horrors with which these pages shall not be polluted. 



EFFECT OF SLAVERY ON THE FREE STATES. 305 

there are sects^ which do maintain the witness she has 
feared to bear. 

But further: as has been already said, this clinging 
curse reaches even to the free states of the north, though 
it assumes in them another form. In them it leads to the 
treatment of the colored race with deep and continual in- 
dignity. They cannot be held in personal bondage, but 
they are of the servile class ; they may be claimed as 
runaways, and thus dragged, if not kidnapped, to southern 
slavery. 

A mingled scorn and hatred of the colored man per- 
vades every usage of society. In the courts of law his 
testimony is not equally received with the white man's 
evidence ;t republican jealousy forgets its usual vigilance, 
in order to deny him his equal vote ; he may be expelled 
with insult from the public vehicle ; he must sit apart in 
the public assembly ; and though no tinge of remaining 
shade may darken his cheek, yet a traditional descent from 
colored blood will make it impossible for him to wed with 
any of the European race. Even in the fierce heat of the 
" revivals" this supreme law of separation is never for a 
moment overlooked. There are different " pens " for the 
white and colored subjects of this common enthusiasm. On 
all these points feeling runs higher in the free north than 
in the slave-states of the south. There the dominion of 

* The Quakers, and four small sects, the Reformed Presbyterians, 
United Brethren, Primitive Methodists, and Emancipation Baptists. 
Slavery and the Internal Slave-Trade in America, p. 132. 

The annual conference of the United Brethren in Maryland and 
Virginia passed, in 1839, the following resolution: "It appeared in 
evidence that Moses Michael was the owner of a female slave, which 
is contrary to the discipline of our Church. Conference therefore 
resolved, that unless brother Michael manumit or set free such slave 
in six months, he no longer be considered a member of our Church." 
American Churches the Bulwark of Slavery, p. 3. 

f An American friend has made the following note on this state- 
ment : " The testimony of colored men is not excluded in all the free 
states. I am not sure that it is in any. In Massachusetts they have 
the civil and political rights of white men. There are three or four 
hundred colored voters in the city of Boston. The social prejudice, 
however, to which you allude, I am sorry to say, is very strong ; a 
mixed feeling of aristocracy, caste, and race. — Note to second edition. 



306 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

the master is supreme, and he can venture, when it pleases 
him, to treat his slave with any degree of intimacy ; for the 
beast of the field might with as high a probability as he, 
claim equal rights with man. But in the north, where 
the colored race are free and often rich, the galling insults 
of caste, are needful to keep up the separation between 
blood and blood ; and here, therefore, more than any where, 
its conventional injustice is supreme ; here, too, by an en- 
forced silence as to the crimes of southern slavery, a guilty 
fellowship in its enormities is too commonly established. 

Against these evils, then, the Church must here testify ; 
she must proclaim that God hath made of one blood all 
nations of the earth ; she must protest against this un- 
christian system of caste ; her lips must be Unsealed to 
denounce God's wrath against the guilty customs of the 
south. And what has been her conduct ? If we seek to 
test her real power over men's hearts by asking what her 
influence has been, we shall rate it low indeed. No voice 
has come forth from her. The bishops of the north sit in 
open convention with their slave-holding brethren, and no 
canon proclaims it contrary to the discipline of their Church 
to hold property in man and treat him as a chattel. Nay, 
further, the worst evils of the world have found their way 
into the Church. The colored race must worship apart ; 
they must not enter the white man's church ; or if they 
do, they must be fenced off into a separate corner. In 
some cases their dust may not moulder in the same ceme- 
tery. Whilst " all classes of white children voluntarily 
attend the Sunday-schools on terms of perfect equality,"* 
any mixture of African blood will exclude the children of 
the wealthiest citizen. Recent events have shown that all 
this is not the evil fruit of an old custom slowly wearing 
itself out ; but that it springs from a living principle which 
is daily finding for itself fresh and wider developments. 

The General Theological Seminary, founded, as we 
have seen, at New- York, under the superintendence of the 
whole Church, was designed to secure a general training 
for all its presbyters. " Every person producing to the 
faculty," so ran its statutes, " satisfactory evidence of his 
* Caswall, p. 297. 



GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 307 

having been admitted a candidate for holy orders, with 
full qualifications, according to the canons of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United States, shall be received 
as a student of the seminary." 5 * Curiosity once prompted 
the question to Bishop Hobart, the founder of the seminary, 
11 whether this wide rule embraced colored candidates?" 
" They would be admitted," was his answer, "asa matter 
of course and without doubt." Such, alas, is not the rule 
of his successor in the bishop's seat. In June, 1839, Alex- 
ander Crummell applied for admission; he 'came from 
three years' study at the Oneida Institute, from sharing 
equal rights with one hundred white students ; he brought 
with him a character which, it was conceded, would war- 
rant his admission if it could be right to admit a colored 
man at all ; he was rejected for this single fault ; one 
bishop (Doane) alone being found to protest against the 
step. Three years before, a similar injustice had been 
wrought.! Both remain to this day unredressed. The 

* Statutes of the General Theological Seminary, chap. vii. sec. 1 
See Act of Incorporation, 1836, p. 16. 

t The diary of the young man then rejected tells so simply all 
the tale, that it is printed here from "Caste and Slavery," pp". 14, 
15:— 

"Oct. 10. — On Wednesday last I passed my examination before 
the faculty of the seminary, and was thereupon admitted a member 
of the school of the prophets. 

" Oct. 11. — I called upon the bishop, and he was dissatisfied with 
the step I had taken in entering the seminary. Seems to appre- 
hend difficulty from my joining the commons ; and thinks that the 
south, from whence they receive much support, will object to my 
entering. 

" Thus far I have met with no difficulty from the students, but 
have been kindly treated. I have thought it judicious, however, to 
leave the commons for the present. 

44 As far as in me lies I will, in my trouble, let all my actions be 
consistent with my Christian profession ; and instead of giving loose 
to mortified feelings, will acquiesce in all things ; but this acquies- 
cence shall not in the least degree partake of the dogged submis- 
siveness which is the characteristic of an inferior. 

" My course shall be independent, and then, if a cruel prejudice 
will drive (me) from the holy threshold of the school of piety, I, the 
weaker, must submit and yield to the superior power. Into thy 
hands ever, God, I commit my cause. 



308 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

Church fears to lose the contributions of the south ; she 
fears to raise the mobs of Philadelphia ; she dare not stand 

" Oct. 12. — At 9 a. m. I called on our spiritual father again, and 
sought advice in relation to my present embarrassing circumstances. 
He gave me plainly to understand that it would be advisable, in his 
opinion, for me not to apply for a regular admission into the semi- 
nary, and, although I had taken a room, and even become settled, 
yet to vacate the room, and silently withdraw myself from the semi- 
nary. He further said that I might recite with the classes, and avail 
myself of the privileges of the institution, but not consider myself in 
the light of a regular member. Never, never will I do so ! 

" The reasons of the bishop for this course are as follows : 

'''That the seminary receives much support and many students 
from the south, and consequently if they admit colored men to equal 
privileges with the whites in the institution, the south will refuse to 
aid (it), and (will) use their influence to keep all from the seminary 
south of the Potomac. As head of the seminary, and knowing the 
feelings and prejudices of the south, he could not hazard my fuller 
admission at such an expense. 

" ' From the extreme excitability of public feeling on this delicate 
subject, and from my known and intimate connexion with the people 
of color, there would be a high probability not only of bringing the 
institution into disrepute, but of exciting opposing sentiment among 
the students, and thus causing many to abandon the school of the 
prophets.' 

" I think these two form the reasons of the bishop against my 
being admitted. The course, however, he advises, viz. the being a 
'hanger-on' in the seminary, is something so utterly repugnant to 
my feelings as a man, that I cannot consent to adopt it. If I cannot 
be admitted regularly, I leave the place ; but in leaving I will ever 
hold the utmost good feeling towards the faculty and my friends. It 
is a cruel prejudice which drives me so reluctantly from the door, 
and makes even those who make high pretensions to piety and purity 
say to me, ' Stand thou there, for I am holier than thou.' 

" In this matter, however, I shall acquiesce as a Christian, but 
shall preserve the independent feelings of a man. My most devoted 
thanks are due to my dear friends, the Rev. Drs. Berrian and Lvell, 
for the earnest solicitude which they manifest for my welfare. They 
seem heartily to regret that any difficulty has arisen on the present 
subject. 

" Upon reflection, it is my present opinion that Bishop Onderdonk 
is wrong in yielding to the ' unrighteous prejudice' (his words) of the 
community. If the prejudice be wrong, I think he ought to oppose 
it without regard to consequences. If such men as he countenance 
it, they become partakers with the transgressors. He says, by and 
by Providence will open the way ; but will Providence effect the 
change miraculously? TVe cannot expect it. He will, however, 



COLORED CLERGYMEN. 309 

between the dead and living : she cannot therefore stay 
the plague. Even when admitted to the sacred functions 
of the priesthood, the colored man is not the equal of his 
brethren. The Rev. Peter Williams, for years a New- 
York presbyter, of blameless reputation, was, for this one 
cause, allowed no seat in the convention of his Church. 
Thus, again, a special canon of the diocese of Pennsylvania 
forbids the representation of the African Church at Phila- 
delphia, and excludes the rector from a seat.^ 

Tried, then, by this test, what can we esteem the pre- 
sent influence of this body ? It plainly has not been con- 
scious of possessing power to stand up in God's name and 
to rebuke the evil one ; it has not healed this sore wound, 
which is wasting the true social life of America. It is a 
time for martyrdom ; and the mother of the saints has 
scarcely brought forth even one confessor. 

effect it by appointed means, and these means ought to be resorted 
to by His instruments — men. And what men more suitable than 
men high in office, high in public favor, high in talents ? Particu- 
larly should men commissioned to preach the Gospel, which teaches 
mercy, righteousness, and truth, enter upon the work. What makes 
my case more aggravating and dreadful is, that the bishop says, that 
even admitting I have no African blood in me, yet my identity with 
the people of color will bar the door of the seminary against me. 
Horrid inconsistency ! 

" Oct. 13. — Called on the bishop yesterday, and had a final inter- 
view with him on this mortifying subject. His determination was 
settled and fixed, that from a sober consideration of all things, the 
interest- of the seminary, the comfort of myself, and the ultimate 
good of my people, I had better silently withdraw, and, agreeably 
to my plan, study privately with a clergyman. He again, at this 
interview, suggested the plan of my embracing the privileges of the 
seminary without being regularly admitted ; to which I would not 
consent, as it would be both a sacrifice of the feelings of a man, 
which I felt not disposed to offer, and, further, a sacrifice of principle, 
to which, I am confident, the noble-minded among my people would 
not allow me to submit. 

" I cannot but conceive my case to be a very peculiar one, involv- 
ing much difficulty, and one which will ultimately cause the guardians 
and controllers of this sacred institution to hang their heads for 
shame. This day I am driven, in the presence of all the students of 
the seminary, and the sight of high Heaven, from the school of the 
prophets." 

* Caste and Slavery, p. 17. 



310 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

To an Englishman this silence is the more eminently 
matter of the deepest pain, because he will at once admit 
that to his own. people belongs the origin of that guilt in 
which the Church and nation of America are now en- 
tangled. So little has our colonial empire been adminis- 
tered on those principles for which our Church has wit- 
nessed,^ that England forced upon her reluctant colonists 
the curse and crime of slave-holding institutions. Against 
remonstrance and resistance from the west, England thrust 
upon them this clinging evil. Freely do we take the shame 
of having first begun this course of crime : but the sense of 
this only makes us desire more earnestly that, through the 
blessing of that pure faith which also she received from 
us, this guilt and loss may be removed. 

Other symptoms show that the mass of the population 
has not yet greatly felt the influence of the Episcopalian 
body. Few of the poor belong to it. It is the religion of the 
affluent and the respectable ; but by it as yet the gospel is 
not largely preached to the poor. The very aspect of the 
churches bespeaks as much. These vary from the rude 
buildings constructed of unsawn logs, which first gem the 
solitude of the backwoods, up to the costly edifices of the 
city, of which the walls, ci built of hammered Milestone 
trimmed with granite, rise forty feet above the ground, 
and in which the organ alone cost 112oZ."t In some of 
the new cities of the west they have been built at a cost 
of 12,600Z. But they all bear one character. They are 
good specimens of what may be termed the modern Gothic. 
It would be difficult to find hi the whole Episcopal com- 
munion throughout America one specimen of that glorious 
style of religious architecture which is to be found in our 
cathedrals, and below them in so many of our parish- 
churches here in England. The one predominant idea in 
the churches of America is to obtain the largest number of 
pews, which, from fronting the pulpit, shall let at remune- 
rating prices. This regulates every arrangement. The 
pulpit occupies one end of the building, the communion 
table being thrust aside, and often consisting of no more 

* Note p. 302. f Caswall, p. 208. 



LUKE WARMNESS . 311 

than a narrow board which fronts the reading-desk. In- 
stead of emulating the solemn grandeur of our ancient 
churches,^ liberality here displays itself in the elegance 
and finish f of the internal decoration of the buildings. 
They are remarkable for the comfort of their cushioned 
pews, carpeted floors, warm stoves, and, in lieu of the 
small circular pulpit of England, their spacious platforms, 
well furnished with the requisite cushions, drapery, and 
lights." Some of these churches " rather resemble splendid 
drawing-rooms than houses of worship. Handsome carpets 
cover every part ; the pews are luxuriously cushioned in a 
manner calculated to invite repose ; while splendidly em- 
broidered pulpit -hangings, superb services of communion- 
plate, and a profusion of silk and velvet, gilding and paint- 
ing, excite the curiosity of the stranger more than his de- 
votion, in these the poor man could hardly find himself at 
home."! 

The natural effects of such a state of things are plainly 
to be traced. "Intellectual sermons and elegant compo- 
sition are held in high esteem," and these "frequently" 
degenerate into the dressing-up of ordinary sentiment in 
a florid style which approaches to bombast. § Hence the 
stranger finds in the house of prayer " a large congregation 
of gay and fashionable visitors, engaged in cold, formal, 
and ostentatious worship." || Hence such avowals as this 
by the venerable Bishop G-riswold: "the evil most to be 
feared and most prevalent amongst us is lukewarmness. 
"With shame must we acknowledge that we incline to be 
cold rather than hot. Enthusiasm is as rare in our churches 
as a scorching sun in a northern winter : the mercury of 
our zeal is constantly below the degree of temperature. "IT 
Hence, too, it follows, that the maintenance of a continual 
sacrifice of prayer and praise to God seems wholly foreign 
to the feelings of our brethren in the west. For whilst 

* Caswall, p. 289. 

f Buckingham's America, vol. iii. p. 472 ; vol. i. p. 190. 
J Caswall, p. 289. § Ibid. p. 296. 

| Buckingham's America, toI. i. p. 276. 

«[ Bishop Griswold on Prayer-Meetings. See Life of Bishop 
Moore, p. 93. 



312 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

" weekly lectures are very frequent," and the whole temper 
of the people favors frequent public meetings, there was, 
in 1839, "no place in America in which the service of the 
Church was performed daily, unless the General Theological 
Seminary at New- York may be regarded as an exception."^ 

This must be to a great extent the result of their posi- 
tion. As a general rule they possess no endowments. The 
building of a church is often a money-speculation ; the sale 
of pews is to cover the expenses of the managing commit- 
tee ; the pew-holders are the parish, and they elect and 
pay the clergyman by an assessment on the pews. All 
this must exclude the poor. They cannot subscribe at first ; 
they cannot pay pew-rents ; they have no part therefore 
in the matter. t The clergyman has no parochial charge, 
the parish no territorial existence ; the clergyman is the 
hired servant of the pew-owners to perform a certain work. 
Thus the poor are passed wholly by ; they are the charge 
of no one. 

In New- York, where the Episcopalian body is possessed 
of endowments, free churches have been opened for the 
poor. But these have not answered. The jealousy of 
poor republicans forbids their profiting by such distinctive 
benefits. This, moreover, is here exasperated to the ut- 
most by the established custom of allotting to " negroes 
and other colored persons the privilege of occupying free 
seats by themselves, distinct from the rest of the 
congregation. "J So does this curse of American society 
meet us anew at every turn. 

* Caswall's America, p. 95. 

f The practical effect of this may be gathered from the following 
supposed conversation between two of them, introduced into the 
" Lowell Offering," a miscellany composed by the " factory girls" at 
the Manchester of America : — 

" Dorcas. The Gospel is an expensive luxury now, and those only 
who can afford to pay their four or six or more dollars a year can 
hear its truths 

" Rosina. Do not speak harshly, Dorcas . . . times have indeed 
changed . . . but circumstances also have changed. ... It is true 
we cannot procure a years seat in one of our most expensive churches 
for less than four present weeks' wages." — Knight's Mind amongst 
the Spindles, p. 123. 

% Caswall's America, p. 282. 



UNFAVORABLE POSITION OF THE CLERGY. 313 

In another way, also, this system grievously impairs 
the Church's strength. It keeps the clergyman in a state 
of servile dependence on his congregation. " There is not 
a man in his flock, however mean and unworthy, whom he 
does not fear ; and if he happens to displease a man of 
importance, or a busy woman, there is an end of his peace. "^ 
This makes his witness often feeble and uncertain ; for 
hence follows the temptation to truckle to popular opinion ; 
hence the Church's silence as to the treatment of the co- 
lored race. By this, again, the general standard of cleri- 
cal character is depressed. " More commonly it is the 
lower order of talent which is found there ; and in a coun- 
try where all depends on display and present popular ef- 
fect, it is an unenviable doom to be attached to that pro- 
fession."! This also has made a constant change of sphere 
almost a condition of clerical life in the west. " Popula- 
rity is the measure of a clergyman's comfort in America ; 
and he is generally most popular at first." Then his sup- 
port begins to flag, his maintenance is reduced, or yielded 
in a manner painful to his feelings. He is forced to mi- 
grate : and thus there is everlasting change in the condi- 
tion of the American clergy. They change ; the people 
change ; all is a round of change ; because all depends on 
the voluntary principle. t 

All of these evils are found in their full vigor ami st 
the various sects. Amongst them the instability of popu- 
lar favor is bridled by no external influence. But the ab- 
sence of endowment brings the Church itself to a fearful 
degree under the same influence, and to that extent im- 
pairs its character and moral weight. 

That, under such a system, the clergy should be what 
they are in America is surely the fruit of God's especial 
mercy. In the midst of the busiest people upon earth, 
where all are getting or expecting to get money, there has 

* Yoice from America, p. 199. f Ibid. p. 194. 

J Ibid. pp. 192, 193. It is well worth the most serious consider- 
ation of the American Church, whether the evil might not to a great 
extent be removed by the introduction of the principle of supporting 
their clergy by the collection of a common fund to be apportioned by 
the bishops. 

14 



314 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

been no want of young mer ready to devote themselves to 
the service of their brethren, though they have no security 
of receiving even the necessary competence for ordinary 
domestic life, and are not led on by any possible expecta- 
tion of obtaining one amongst some few great prizes, or 
allured by the expectation cf learned leisure, or promised 
an opportunity of leading thereby a literary life. They 
chocs 3 their lot, knowing that in it their days must be spent 
in constant and exhausting labor, with the smallest earthly 
recompense. On such a ministry God's blessing must rest 
abundantly, and in its high character is, no doubt, found 
the practical escape from many evils inherent in t\ic theory 
of the constitution of their Church. 

Here, then, we may form some judgment of the present 
influence of this body in America ; and if from this we may 
venture to anticipate its future progress, there is much 
ground for sanguine hope, not unmixed with reasonable 
fear. 

Its dangers can hardly be mistaken. The great stream 
of religions opinion in America sets towards the chill decen- 
cies of Socinian error. This is the natural tendency of a 
busy, growing, wealthy, self-governing people, and this has 
been eminently the tendency of the West. The New-Eng- 
land states have already fallen into the snare ; and from 
the revulsions which follow the extravagance of revivals, 
as well as from other causes, these tenets are generally 
spreading. •- This doctrine," writes Jefferson in 1822, 
from Virginia, " has not yet been preached to us, but the 
breeze begins to be felt. ... It will come and drive be- 
fore it the foggy mists which have so long obscured our 
atmosphere."^ " That this will ere long be the religion 
of the majority, from north to south, I have no doubt. "f 
" I confidently expect that the present generation will see 
it become the general religion of the United States. '$ 

Exaggerated as were Jefferson's immediate expectations, 
there can be no doubt that they point towards the real danger. 
The mercantile turn, even of religion, inclines in this direc- 

* Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 362. 

f Ibid. voL iv. p. 367. % Ibid « vo1 - ' iy ' P- 369 - 



L ATITUDINARIANISM. 315 

tion. Where there is enough of a hovering tendency to- 
wards Chrisianity to lead to the erection of a new church 
in some newly-settled or increasing neighborhood, its fa- 
bric is divided out into a series of pews, on no other prin- 
ciple than how they will let to the greatest advantage. 
The minister is engaged on the same calculation. Even 
the doctrines to be preached are ruled by the same law. 
Hence we hear of such strange facts as that a Congrega- 
tional population, having abandoned their old creed, hung 
long in doubt between electing a Socinian or Universalist 
teacher, and ended by addicting themselves to the Episco- 
pal communion.^ All of this is evidently highly unfavor- 
able to the simple child-like fatih which Christ's gospel 
requires ; it is all injurious to that earnest personal faith in 
the blood of Jesus as the only hope of lost sinners, without 
which even the most orthodox creed becomes a set of bar- 
ren and unmeaning dogmas. 

And this tendency of the American temper is increased 
by the character of their political institutions. Absolute 
indifference to all religious distinction is the principle which 
lies at their root. They are full of a continual practical 
denial of the existence of any difference between truth and 
falsehood. It is not merely that all forms of worship and 
opinions are tolerated, although this is carried so far that 
even infidelity itself is treated with respect and deference as 
one peculiar " form of religious opinion, being certainly an 
opinion about religion ;"* but, beyond this, it appears to 
be the aim of the state to extend a just and equal measure 
of direct support and patronage to all sects and professions 
of belief. Thus, when a state-legislature assembles, it is 
the prevailing custom that the ministers of all such bodies 
should be invited to act by weekly rotation as their chap- 
lains ; and this extends to every extreme of opinion. A 
professed Socinian is invited to officiate as chaplain before 
the descendants of those puritans who left their fathers' 
land to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and 
truth ; and a Romanist offers up the public worship of 

* Caswall, p. 136. 

* Voice from America, p. 159. 



316 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

states, from which a few generations back the priest was 
banished under the penalty of death. * 

This custom is not confined to state assemblies. The 
congress, at the opening of every session, elects a chaplain 
for each of its two houses, with an understanding that both 
chaplains shall not be of the same sect. Thus every sect 
in the course of a few years receives in turn the compli- 
ment of this selection. The same rule applies to their 
army and navy chaplains, who are commonly elected mere- 
ly for their personal attainments, and without the question 
being even asked to what sect or party they belong. So 
lax a system of entire indifference is, in truth, one develop- 
ment of infidelity ; for in this common encouragement of 
all sects there is at one time or another a denial of every 
truth. This must leaven the whole mind of the nation 
with the persuasion that there is no such thing as objective 
truth, — and this is the first step towards professed unbe- 
lief. He who knows not whether any thing is true, begins 
to doubt of everything ; and he who has once suffered 
doubt to dwell freely and at large within his breast, is 
already far advanced towards the positive disbelief of all 
things. 

Against this, then, the Church has continually to strive 
and testify. It is the first principle of every Christian man, 
that God has revealed to us a knowledge of Himself, of His 
will, of ourselves, and of our duty ; and that His word is 
true, that it is the truth. Of this truth the Church claims 
to be a " witness," and a '"keeper" of this testimony. 
The points taught in the creeds are. therefore, no longer 
matter for doubt and speculation, but merely of faithful 
and willing reception, because they come from Him who is 
truth. On these matters it is not possible to enter into any 
compromise. It is not possible for the true believer to help 
forward the fearful blasphemies of the Socinian, who de- 
nies the honor due unto the Saviour, by putting him for- 
ward to act publicly as a minister of that Lord whom he 
dishonors. 

Between, then, this fatal form of false religion and the 

* Voice from America, p 161. 



CHURCH OF ROME. 317 

truth as it is in Jesus, there must be a hard struggle. But 
not between these only. 

The sectarian principle itself must be successfully op- 
posed. This is at once the ultimate occasion of Socinian 
increase, and the present mother of a monstrous and mis- 
shapen brood of heresies. With these the Church must do 
open battle for her Master's truth ; whilst she must mildly 
open to others the truths after which they are seeking in 
their less perfect systems, and which perchance she may 
win them over to rind fully hi her own. Nor is this all : 
with the Roman communion, also, she has before her no 
common strife. True to the ordinary conduct of the pa- 
pacy, the Roman pontiff founded the rival bishopric of Bal- 
timore two years after the consecration of Bishops White 
and Provoost ; and by the subsequent erection of the sees 
of New- York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Beardstown,^ set 
up altar against altar through the West. Thus the Epis- 
copal communion has always had to bear her protest against 
papal superstitions. But a severer strife is yet to be en- 
countered. With the keen-eyed policy which has always 
distinguished the schemes of Rome, she has turned her main 
attention to the valley of the Mississippi. There a vast 
population is multiplying with unprecedented speed. The 
European emigrants to this quarter are, by a large ma- 
jority, from popish countries ; and if not already of the Ro- 
mish faith, no pains are spared to make them so. There, 
on the outskirts of civilized life, the adventurous settler, 
having left behind him the forms and opportunities of 
Christian worship, seizes eagerly upon a soil of unbounded 
fertility, and devotes all his thoughts to making it his own ; 
and there the enchantress meets him with her cup of sor- 
cery, and wins him over, whilst there is no other near to 
whisper to him words of caution, or to shame the fallen 
Church with open rebuke. No expense is grudged hi this 

* " There are serious difficulties affecting the regularity, and even 
the validity, of the ordination of the above-mentioned Carroll, and all 
the Romish clergy of the United States derived from him, in conse- 
quence of his ordination having been performed by only one titular 
bishop, who appears to have labored under a similar irregularity or de- 
ficiency himself." Palmer's Treatise on the Church, vol. i. p. 305, note. 



318 AMERICAN CHTJPcCH. 

peculiar work ; funds are supplied, without any limit, from 
the Leopold Society of Austria, and from the Society for 
the Propagation of the Faith, the head-quarters of which 
are fixed at Lyons. "^ The population is becoming largely 
Homish ; and this, beyond all doubt, is to be the future 
seat of empire. The best informed Americans expect that, 
after one more struggle, the west will command the elec- 
tions of the union ; and thus the centre of power will have 
been forestalled by Home. But even now, and without 
waiting this accomplishment, her power is not to be con- 
temned. Many peculiarities of life in America already 
tend to establish her dominion. The revulsion of feeling, 
which ever drives men from one extreme to another, na- 
turally leads those who have been wearied out by the fierce 
excitements of the various sects to seek for shelter in her 
delusive quietness. Her claim of infallibility seems to be a 
blessing to spirits which are utterly hopeless of finding out 
any truth amidst the conflicting claims of ten thousand 
contesting teachers ; whilst by her doctrine of the sacra- 
ments, her practical management of penances, and her 
perilous medicine of enforced auricular confession, with its 
attendant absolution, she heals slightly the wounds of many 
a morbid and diseased conscience. The Romanists, more- 
over, have always known how to modify their doctrines 
and discipline, so as to turn to the best advantage the po- 
litical circumstances of the country and the times. Thus, 
whilst under an absolute monarchy they are the greatest 
enemies of rational and lawful liberty, in republican Ame- 
rica they are the most thoroughly democratical of all sects. 
At first sight it may be difficult to conceive how the popish 
discipline can be made to harmonise with an equalising 
democracy ; but upon looking more closely, it will be 
seen, as has been remarked by a keen oberver of Ameri- 
can society,! that Homanism is really most favorable to 

* " At St. Louis the Jesuits have lately erected, in addition to 
their cathedral, a spacious church and a university, with a library of 
ten thousand volumes, towards which only about eight thousand 
dollars were raised at St. Louis, the remainder of the funds coming 
chiefly from Lyons." Private Letter of Rev. H. Caswall. 

fM.de Tocqueville. 



PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH. 319 

democracy ; for that under its system " the religious com- 
munity is composed of only two elements, the priest and 
the people. The priest alone rises above the rank of his 
flock, and all are equal below him." None know better 
than the adherents of the papacy how to profit by such a 
state of society. Already they have tasted the sweets of 
political power. " TJiey have grown," we are told in 1839, 
" to an important political influence, by the acquisition of 
Louisiana and by emigration from Europe, so as to be capa- 
ble of turning a vote for a national administration in which- 
ever scale they cast their weight, in the present nearly 
equal balance of political parties. They are generally 
found on one side, namely, the most thoroughly democra- 
tical and radical ; and as that is at present the dominant 
party, it may be said that they govern the country so far 
as that they are the means of keeping in power the party 
to which they are attached."^ 

Against the Episcopal communion the whole strength 
of the Romanists is bent. They fear no other body. In 
the multitude, variety, and extravaganee of the sects is, 
they well know, the secret of their own strength, and the 
ground of their hope of one day reducing all to a common 
servitude. Their talisman of might is in the apparent 
shelter and visible unity of their church, and through it 
they hope to triumph ; but these in their reality are pos- 
sessed by the Episcopal communion, and with them the 
blessed truth of Christ's Gospel, free from those deep cor- 
ruptions which throughout Christendom mar every where 
the countenance of Home. 

With Rome, therefore, in the new world as elsewhere, 
the pure Church of Christ must wrestle. But there is no 
doubt of the result, if only she be true to herself. If, in- 
deed, forsaking this high ground, the Episcopalian puts 
himself upon a level with every unscriptural sect around 
him, then he may expect to find Home too strong for him. 
But if he maintains his true position, he cannot but resist 
successfully her multiplied and fearful errors. And for this 
contest the Church in America has some peculiar advan- 

* Voice from America, by an American Gentleman, p. 161. 



320 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

tages. Her general convention enables her to meet the 
varying form of error, and to adjust internal grounds of 
difference, to. an extent altogether unattainable where, as 
at home, the power of assembling lawfully in synod has 
been, for any cause, suspended or removed. 

Such are the prospects of the Episcopal communion. 
There can be no doubt that a hard struggle is before her ; 
that vast difficulties, social, moral, and religious, will im- 
pede her progress. The treatment of the negro race alone 
might amply occupy her energies ; but besides this, she 
has the busiest people in the world to charm to Christian 
quietness. Peace must be breathed over their unresting 
eagerness ; by cultivating college-life and the studies and 
devotions of a more learned clergy, still thoughts must be 
sheltered and fostered amidst those crowded haunts of men ; 
and safe, quiet resting-places must be formed in streams 
madder and more troubled than the waters of her own tur- 
bulent Missouri. She must bridle or subdue the out- 
stretching atheism of the backwoods population, the extra- 
vagance of the multitude of strange sects, as well as the 
decent unbelief of Socinian Boston ; she must expose the 
subtle errors of the Romish Church. All this is no ordi- 
nary work ; yet all this, and more than all of it, she may 
accomplish, if she is but true to her own principles. If 
she abandons these, she is indeed lost. Whether swallow- 
ed up by the sects, or engulfed by Rome, or sinking into 
the Socinian heresy, it were vain to prognosticate ; but her 
fall is certain. The history of the King's Chapel* at Bos- 

* Where the " King's Chapel" now stands, the first Episcopal 
church in New England was erected in 1689. It was built of wood, 
but was replaced in 1749 by a stone church, which cost little less 
than £10,000. It was distinguished by a succession of royal gifts. 
In 1697, communion -plate was given to it by King William and 
Queen Mary ; and in 1772 arrived together gifts from Georges II. and 
III. Only eleven years after this, the first fatal step was openly 
taken, by the adoption of an altered liturgy, from which the Athan- 
asian Creed and the opening sentences of the litany were formally 
excluded. From that time its descent has been rapid ; and now, 
with a mutilated service and heretical creed, it is an avowedly So- 
cinian congregation. Abridged from Dr. Greenwood's History of 
King's Chapel , as quoted by Buckingham, vol iii. p. 447. 



PROSPECTS OF THE CHURCH. 321 

ton stands as a beacon-light to warn her from this danger- 
ous course. Of the urgency of these dangers in times past, 
the absence of the Athanasian Creed from her public for- 
mularies is a painful record. It is still, no doubt, the 
abiding loss of one great safeguard against error. It is im- 
possible to estimate too highly the value of those hymns of 
thanksgiving which associate with the emotions of our ear- 
liest worship the deep mysteries of revelation. Against all 
enticements therefore to adopt a lower tone, she needs spe- 
cially to stand upon her guard. He who bears the vows 
of the ISTazarite must not adopt as his rule the ordinary 
customs of society around him. If he slumbers in the lap 
of ease or worldly conformity, the Philistines will bind the 
champion of God's host ; and he who should have deliver- 
ed Israel will ere long grind sightless in the world's mill, or 
make rude merriment for God's enemies. 

But if in the character of Christ's witness, loving and 
proclaiming His truth in its simplicity, ministering His sa- 
craments faithfully and purely, she resists the evils around 
her, then in God's name will she surely triumph over all 
opposition. To do which there must be no dread of mar- 
tyrdom when truth requires the sacrifice. At all costs she 
must bear the burden of the Lord, and bless the religious 
and social life of those given to her. This she can do in 
the strength God gives to His faithful witnesses, if that 
strength is called out and used for Him. But to be thus 
strong, she must bring out her own principles. 
There must be no faltering step swerving towards the 
sects around her, no secret coveting of the Babylonish gar- 
ment which is stored within the tents of Home. Her ban- 
ner must be indeed "Evangelical truth with apostolical 
order, — the Gospel in the Church." There must be no 
paring down, on the one side, of the great doctrines of 
grace ; no attempt, on the other, to win the good- will of 
men by changing, according to their wandering fancies, 
that form of Church-order which Christ has appointed. 
It is impossible by such a course to turn aside reproach and 
and opposition. This cannot be avoided by any sacrifice 
short of " the intercommunity of services ;"* that is, of 
* Reed and Matheson. 
14* 



322 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

an entire abandonment of all claim to apostolic constitu- 
tion. For this is the real question in dispute between her- 
self and others : and the less are the ostensible reasons for 
separation from them, the greater is the irritation which 
inevitably awaits those who still insist on separation ; for 
in them it seems to be founded on no great principle, and 
to be therefore causeless, which makes it injurious and in- 
sulting. They who have thought that the outcry some- 
times heard against the Church at home is excited by its 
being established by the nation, and not by its bearing wit- 
ness against the lawfulness of sectarian subdivision, may be 
surprised to find that, to an English dissenter, the claims 
of the Episcopal communion are more offensive in America 
than here, " where there is something of pomp, and pri- 
vilege, and numbers to uphold these pretensions."^ There 
it appears to him to be incredible exclusiveness Hence in 
that land it is doubly needful that the true grounds of those 
actions which provoke this judgment should be calmly but 
clearly stated . It must be felt that they who act thus do 
so because they believe that Christ having founded a fixed 
form of Church-life, it is not lawful for them at their own 
will to alter it, or to acquiesce in its re-construction, to 
please the taste of other men. This, and this only, can 
justify their separation : if the Episcopal Church of Ame- 
rica, instead of being the witness against all sectarian divi- 
sion, is herself regarded as one of the sects, then is she in- 
deed the most exclusive and overbearing of them all. Her 
sons must be felt not to be maintaining in a hostile spirit 
their own dogmas, but in the heartiest love to be bent on 
sharing with their less favored brethren the riches of their 
own inheritance ; and this they cannot do unless they them- 
selves believe in its reality. Nothing can more fatally 
deny their own true standing-ground than the unhappy 
custom, prevalent upon their days of solemn gathering, of 
publicly inviting, often by their bishop's voice, to the table 
of the Lord, not only their own members, but "all who 
consider themselves as in good standing with their own 
denomination, "t 

* Reed and Mathesoo, vol . ii. p. 75. 

f No question is asked as to the great fundamentals of the faith ; 



PROMISE OF THE FUTURE. 323 

But it is not enough that the distinctive features which 
mark this communion should thus he kept clear and plain. 
There must also be a high tone on those great moral and 
social questions which are rising daily, and on which mere 
politicians have no utterance of principle. There must he 
no timid silence as to great enormities. In those mighty 
issues which indeed try the spirits of men, her voice must 
be clear. Thus, for example, the treatment of the negro 
population must be her care ; the equal worth of the co- 
lored race must be unequivocally held and asserted by her. 
It must no longer be the reproach of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church that it is only in the Romish Cathedral at 
New- Orleans that whites and blacks are seen to kneel 
together,* as those who were made of one blood by one 
Father, and redeemed from common death through the 
cross of one only Saviour. Timid, compromising conduct 
on these great subjects, safe as it may seem at present, 
will, more than any thing besides, weaken through the 
whole nation the moral weight of any religious body. By 
an universal law of God's providence, it is in doing battle 
for His truth that men exercise and train their own spirits, 
and subdue the herd of weaker minds to their rule and 
government. By its courage or unfaithfulness on this one 
question, the Church, as far as we can see, is fixing now 
for good or ill its true weight and standing in the coming 
generation. 

-Many favorable signs give hopeful promise of its rising 
to its true dignity of action. On all sides there is a grow- 
ing disposition to act meekly and calmly, but yet steadily, 
upon its own principles. It is carrying throughout the 
Union its episcopacy and apostolic discipline. It is provi- 
ding for clerical education and the formation of a clerical 
character amongst those who are to bear the ministry of 
Christ. On every side it is seeking to remove the irregu- 
larities and contradictions which, in its weak and uncertain 
beginning, were suffered in its constitution, as the fruits of 
ignorance within itself, or concessions to predjucice with- 
out even Soeinians may avail themselves of the promiscuous 
invitation. 

* Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i. p. 128. 



324 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

out. Attempts are even now making to limit the elections 
of members of convention to those who are in regular com- 
munion. Conventions are increasingly commenced with 
the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.* 
In its missionary organization the true and highest form 
of Church-societies is visibly developed. The whole body 
is thereby acknowledged the society, and its rule and gov- 
ernment is placed in the same hands which have received 
from Christ's appointment the administration of His 
Church. On other points, at the same time, the tone of 
thought and action is manifestly rising. The poor are, far 
more than they were, the care of this communion. The 
institution of free churches, although not yet wholly suc- 
cessful, is a practical avowal of their sense of this obliga- 
tion. Even on the slave-question the Church is not 
wholly silent. She has turned away from the baits held 
out by the Colinization Society.! One bishop, and not the 

* Before the general convention of 1841, nearly 1500 communi- 
cants met together at the Lord's table in St. John's church, New- 
York. 

t In the convention of 1823 the bishops declined the proposal of 
sending a delegate to an intended meeting of that boc^y, but ex- 
pressed approbation of their object. Bishop White's Jfemoirs p. 51. 
This was a charitable construction of the purposes of that society. 
No doubt many truly humane men have joined it with the hope of 
colonising Africa with free blacks, and thereby introducing into that 
unhappy continent, and amidst its estimated 30,000,000 of the negro 
race, civilization and Christianity. And to a certain extent, this, we 
may hope, will be the result of their colony of Liberia on the African 
coast. But the great effect of the scheme, if it succeeded, would be 
to remove from America all the free colored population who are the 
natural guardians of their brethren in slavery, and so to rivet far 
ever the fetters of the slave. It is, in fact, the safety-valve of that 
system, and therefore is in favor amongst all the advocates of slavery 
in the northern as well as the southern states. For whilst it pro- 
mises to the south the secure possession of their slave-labor, it falls 
in with northern prejudice by being a practical declaration, that the 
two races cannot co-exist together in a state of freedom, and that 
deportation must be a condition of the black man's liberty. The 
statements of one of its ablest advocates,f carefully prepared, too, 
to fall in, as far as possible, with the prejudices of England on this 



t Letter to the Hon. Henry Clay, &c., by R. R. Gurley, 



BISHOP MEADE AND SLAVERY. 325 

least distinguished of his order, has been scarcely held back 
by the full force of official forms from recording his solemn 
protest against the exclusion from the General Theological 
Seminary of the candidate of negro blood ; and in two at 
least of the churches of the north the African has been 
acknowledged to be, as much as his white brother in the 
priesthood, the witness of Christ's resurrection, and tha 
Stewart of His mysteries. ^ Even in Virginia, from the 
bishop's seat, a whisper may be heard. Bishop Meade 
has put into his Manual of Devotion this prayer for the 
use of a master of a family in the slave district : — " 
heavenly Master, hear me whilst I lift my heart in prayer 
for those unfortunate beings who call me master. G-od, 
make known unto me my whole duty towards them and 
their oppressed race ; give me courage and grace to do it 
at all events ; convince me of sin if I be wrong in retaining 
them another moment in bondage." In the freedom of 
this happy land we cannot without effort, easily beleive 
how much true Christian daring was required to put forth 
even this gentle rebuke. God grant that it may soon be 
spoken in accents like those of the faithful prophet whose 
righteous soul would not endure that the people of the 
Lord should continue halting between two opinions. 

For if on this, and on other kindred subjects, her wit- 
subject, scarcely veil this view. Their tone cannot be mistaken, 
They are a plausible apology for the " peculiar social institutions of 
the south.''' They would justify perpetual bondage amidst the 
sugar-canes and cotton-plants of Georgia and Alabama, and the 
perpetual trampling on the free negro in the streets of Philadelphia 
and New- York. 

* It is due to those who, in this day of trial, have not shrunk from 
their principles, to record the names of those who have borne this 
witness. Bishop Doane of New Jersey, in June, 1839, opposed and 
sought leave to enter his protest against the decision of the trustees 
as to Alex. Crummell ; and he having since been ordained by the 
late Bishop Griswold, has been invited to share in the public services 
of the Church, "in the presence of large and fashionable congrega- 
tions, as an equal brother, without a syllable of disapprobation dis- 
turbing the harmony of the scene," by the Rev. George Burgess, 
rector of Christ Church, the Rev. Arthur Coxe, (author of Athanasion, 
&c.,) minister of St. Gabriel's, Windsor, and rector of St. John's 
Church, Hartford, Connecticut. Caste and Slavery, p. 22. 



326 AMERICAN CHURCH. 

ness for God were clear and explicit, what could we fear 
for the Church in America ? It has already even gained 
on the rapidly increasing population of the United States.* 
Between 1814 and 1838, whilst the population of the 
Union has little more than doubled, it has quadrupled it- 
self. Should its increase continue at this rate, it would in 
fifty years outnumber the mother Church, and before the 
end of a century would embrace a majority of all the 
people of the West. What is there but want of faith to 
limit this progress, or to prevent its dispensing every spirit- 
ual and social blessing to the busy people round it ? To 
say that it is beset by peculiar dangers, is only to assert of 
it that which may be said of the Church Catholic at every 
period since her first foundation. Is ever has she been free 
from danger ; never has it seemed less than imminent and 
menacing. At one time, persecution from without has 
threatened to beat down and root it out ; at another, heresy 
has raised against her its parti- colored banner, and seemed 
ready to swallow up the faithful. Schism has sometimes 
divided her ; and sometimes the friendship of the world 
and the fair speech of men has almost robbed her of her 
jealous love for truth, and sullied her virgin holiness. Yet 
in all trials, and through all opposition, God has ever held 
her up. And so it must be ; ever ready to fail, but never 
failing; leaving, it maybe, one land, to rise with new 
splendor on another ; out of weakness waxing strong : this 
has been, and this must be, her course. This was foretold 
of her when it pleased our Lord to show to His first Twelve 
the shadow which her long-after history cast forward : 
" Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one 
another, and hate one another : and many false prophets 
shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity 
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he 
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the 
end come." 

So it has been, and so it must be to the end. Always 

* CaswaH's America, p. 386. 



CONCLUSION. 327 

is there trial enough to betray the ungodly and the in- 
sincere ; always is the danger enough in following Christ 
to lead the half-hearted to go over to the world's side : but 
ever is there in Christ's presence and in Christ's promises 
strength enough to hold up them that will cleave to Him. 
And so it will be until He come again : for He has founded 
His Church upon a rock ; and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against her. 



APPENDIX. 



The editor of this American edition of Bishop Wilberforce's History 
of the Church in these United States, published the annexed sermon 
on "Communion of Saints," more than a year since. He had never 
seen the bishop's book nor knew any thing of its contents. He 
has carefully looked over the statements made by him on the sub- 
ject of slavery, and cannot find a single error in any particular. 
Within the last year the sin and evils of slavery have been most 
ably set forth in resolutions and addresses to the public of the slave- 
holding States themselves. I have before me the resolutions of a 
convention of delegates in Kentucky, assembled in Frankfort, the 
capital of the State, on the 25th of April, 1S49. The first resolution 
is as follows : " 1. Believing that hereditary slavery, as it exists by 
the laws of Kentucky, is injurious to the commonwealth, inconsistent 
with the fundamental principles of a free government, and opposed 
to the rights of mankind, it therefore ought not to be perpetuated." 
This is speaking quite as plainly on the subject of slavery, as Bishop 
W. does in any expression of his, or, as does the author of the ser- 
mon annexed. This convention was attended by many distinguished 
persons of all parties and sects ; some preachers made very able 
exposition of the sin and evils of slavery. Where was the testimony 
of either branch of the Church, holding " par excellence," the doctrine 
of " the Communion of Saints." Where was the Bishop of Bards- 
town, or the Bishop of Kentucky ? Their voices are not heard in 
defence of " the rights of mankind," to say nothing of " the liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free." 



" ®l)e Conttnnniou of Saints,' 

Hi 



DISCOURSE 

DELIVERED IN 

ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

ON SUNDAY, THE 26th OF MARCH, A. D. 1848. 

BY 

EVAN M. JOHNSON, 

RECTOR. 



The author of this discourse is not a member of any Colonization, or 
Anti-Slavery, or Abolition Society whatever, and fully believes all 
these would be unnecessary, if the Catholic Church would do as she 
ought. It is with the humble hope of calling the attention of Her 
members to what he esteems a neglected duty that he is induced to 
publish this. 



DISCOURSE. 



1 COR.. XII., 13 and 14, 25, 26 and 21 verses. 

" For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we 
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all 
made to drink into one Spirit ; for the body is not one member, but 
many ; that the members should have the same care one for another 
and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Now 
ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 

In the Apostle's Creed, Christians are taught to believe 
in " The Holy Catholic Church ; The Communion of 
Saints." Every one, who pretends to be a member of the 
one Catholic Church in the world, receives each and every 
article of this Creed as containing a truth not to be dis- 
puted — one article may be excepted. He that rejects 
one, denies in fact the whole. For instance, if a person 
believe every other Article of the Creed and deny the ex- 
istence of ' The Holy Ghost.' he is an heretic ; so, if he 
deny the existence of " the Holy Catholic Church : the 
Communion of Saints ;" he is an heretic. The doctrine 
taught by these clauses in the Creed and as more fully ex- 
plained in other Creeds and the teaching of the Church is 
this, that the Church which is holy, is also Catholic ; that 
is, universal, as it exists in the whole world. It is one. 
However separated as to locality, however high or low the 
station in life, of its members, or however they may differ 
as to their ideas of the supremacy of its earthly Head ; it 
is One, as it is the body of Christ. All are united in the 
belief, that Christ is its Divine Head ; and the Holy Ghost 
its animating, living principle. Individuals have been 



334 APPENDIX. 

and are made, and will continue to be made members 
of this one body of Christ by Baptism. " For by one 
Spirit we are all baptised into one body." The Head 
of the Church instituted the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, 
in which He implants (without reference to the fitness of 
His earthly agent,) through His Ministry the seed of Di- 
vine life in the soul of man. He has also made provision 
for the nurture of the "plant of renown." He gives His 
Holy Spirit, in answer to the sincere prayers of the mem- 
bers of His Body. He enables them to confess and forsake 
their sins — to become more and more holy and blameless. 
He feeds their souls with angel's food, " the manna that 
came down from heaven." His Body is to them " meat 
indeed and His blood drink indeed." Thus, in commun- 
ion with Him the Head, any member of this one Church 
may thro' the grace given by the Holy Ghost, become one 
of the number of the Saints — any member of this one 
Church may by neglect, or thoughtlessness, or sin, or way- 
wardness, drive away the Holy Spirit and never enter 
into the joy of his Lord. It was the great object of our 
adorable Saviour by His humiliation to raise our fallen hu- 
manity, that any of our race may be enabled to become 
11 Sons of God." Those, who in this one Catholic Church, 
do cultivate the graces of the Spirit and through obedience 
and self mortification and " fasting" and " praying " and 
"alms-giving" and "serving God day and night" with 
sincerity and humble obedience, thus showing that the 
righteousness of Christ is in them, are called Saints. 
They are Holy, in a very peculiar sense, because Christ 
is Holy and they are one with Him. "He in them and 
they in Him." All such, wherever they may be, what- 
ever may be their condition in life, bond or free, stand in a 
special relation to one another as members of the great 
Body of which He is Head. This relation is called " the 
Communion of Saints." It is through the Spirit of " the 
Father and the Son," animating the whole body and en- 
livening every member of it, that Christ communicates His 
grace, through His Sacraments ; and it is by the same 
Spirit that believers have " access by one Spirit to the 
father." As the Spirit of a man enlivens the body of a 



APPENDIX. 335 

man, so does the Holy Spirit enliven the whole body of the 
Church. Thus, the faithful have communion one with 
another and with Christ the Head. Whether then Chris- 
tians believe that the Bishop of Rome or the Bishop of 
Constantinople is the head of the whole Church, or that 
there is but one Head and that is Christ in Heaven, and 
that each Bishop is Head of the subordinate branch com- 
mitted to his charge, and that each individual Christian 
holds his communion with the great Head through his 
own Bishop, they are substantially agreed in believing this 
doctrine of ''Communion of Saints." If we look into the 
Scriptures we find that this doctrine is most distinctly 
brought to view, as enforcing various duties of an highly 
practical character. Our Saviour himself said to his dis- 
ciples, " A new commandment give I unto you that ye 
love one another ; as I have loved you, that ye also love 
one another ; by this shall all men know that ye are my 
disciples, if ye have love one to another." Says the Apos- 
tle, " We being many are one body in Christ, and every 
one members one of another. Let love be without dis- 
simulation. Be kindly affeetioned one to another, with 
brotherly love ; in honor preferring one another." The 
same Apostle exhorts the members of Christ's body to 
" bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of 
Christ" — again, "we are members one of another, be ye 
kind to one another, tender hearted." I will not quote 
farther from the Scriptures on this point. Saints in all 
ages of the Church have considered these and such like 
parts of Holy Writ, as enforcing upon them the discharge 
of these duties and the exercise of these affections thus 
prominently brought to notice. It has been and it always 
will be the most decided test of Christian character, the 
best evidence both to one's self and to others, of the exis- 
tence and growth of the divine life or of its decay, that, 
when a Christian examines himself, he finds he discharges 
these duties and exercises these affections, or that he neg- 
lects the one and does not cultivate the other. A person 
may profess to believe in the doctrine of " the Communion 
of Saints" — that all Christians are one in Christ and made 
partakers of His nature ; if he do not discharge the duty 



336 APPENDIX. 

which is imposed on him, by the Word of God, as an in- 
dividual member of this one body of Christ, his is nothing 
else than profession — he does not really believe the doc- 
trine — he deceives himself. 

In all ages of the Church, this doctrine, taught by the 
Saviour Himself and enforced by so many and so striking 
passages of God's word, has powerfully infiuenced the mem- 
bers of the true Church of Christ and inspired them with 
feelings of deep commiseration for the oppressed, and with 
determined exertions for their relief. In the first centuries 
a community of suffering among Christians produced also 
a community of commiseration, and whenever any were 
released from their persecution, or oppression, or bondage, 
they immediately sought to obtain the relief of others, who 
with them were one in Christ. I have time only to state 
a few historical facts to confirm this statement. About the 
year 340 after Christ, a canon had been passed strictly 
prohibiting the appropriation of the sacred vessels of the 
sanctuary to any secular purpose. St. Ambrose of Milan, 
to redeem captives, when no other means could be obtained, 
sold the sacred vessels and utensils of the Church, to make 
provision for what he called " the living temples of God." 
He speaks in his own defence, and personifying the Saviour, 
he says, " the ornament of my Sacraments is the redemp- 
tion of captives." St. Austin disposed of the plate of his 
Church for " the redemption of captives." In an after 
age, when the Northern herds overran the Roman Empire, 
making slaves of those they captured, the power of the 
Church was soon brought to bear upon these ferocious 
barbarians. As soon as they became Christians they were 
compelled to release their slaves. See too, in the contests 
of the Bishops and the Church of England, with the Xor- 
man Kings ; they held in abject slavery almost the whole 
population of England. The Bishops were the friends of 
the oppressed, and some even sacrificed their lives in be- 
half of oppressed humanity. We have an eminent instance 
in the modern history of the Church, where, really believ- 
ing the doctrine of " Communion of Saints," and acting 
under the influence of its truth, St. Vincent of Paul per- 
mitted himself to be made a slave, that he might go and 



APPENDIX. 337 

carry the consolations of the Gospel to those who had been 
made slaves for their crimes. For many centuries it con- 
tinued to be the Church's rule, that whenever a slave be- 
came converted and was baptized, he became a free man* 
From these few facts, selected from many hundreds of the 
like kind, we are sure, that many of the most eminent 
Saints, of all ages of the Church, have been the friends of 
the oppressed — have done what they could to mitigate 
the evils of slavery, and, whenever it was possible, to re- 
lease men from bondage, We see not how they could have 
done otherwise, if they really believed that every indivi- 
dual, whether bond or free, that had been renewed after 
the image of Christ and been received into his Church, had 
become a part of himself; of the body of which He is Head. 
-.' If one member suffered, the other members suffered 
with it." 

There are in these United States about three millions 
of persons of African extraction. The ancestors of these 
people were brought here from Africa, as slaves. In these 
northern States slavery has gradually been abolished ; in 
some of the western States it has never existed. These 
descendants of Africans with us are all said to be free. In 
the southern States, slavery exists, as it ever has, in all its 
rigor. Some few colored persons are free, so called ; but 
so great are the difficulties, created by the law, of libera- 
ting slaves, that the number of free persons of color dimin- 
ishes rather than increases.! It is computed that there 
are two and a half millions of slaves and four hundred 
thousand of free persons of color in these United States. 
In these, there are twenty-seven Prelates of the Roman 
Communion and twenty-nine of the Anglican Communion ; 
the one holding their Apostolical succession through the 
Roman branch of the Church ; the other through the An- 
glican. There are. subject to the former eight hundred 
and ninety-two Priests, and to the latter about fourteen 

* In some of the Southern States this humane provision of the 
Christian law has been expressly repealed by Statute. 

f In many Slave States it is unlawful to manumit a slave unless 
he consent to go out of the state ; or, I believe in some cases, he 
must go to Liberia. 

15 



338 APPENDIX. 

hundred and twenty- seven, making in all fifty-six Prelates 
and two thousand three hundred and nineteen clergy in 
these United States. 

Many thousands of our most distinguished public men, 
men of influence and character, belong to one or other of 
these communions and attend upon the public ministry or 
service of these prelates and clergy. These all, both clergy 
and laity, in their daily or weekly religious service, before 
God's holy altar, in his Church, renew their oaths of fidelity 
to Him and the Church, by repeating the Apostle's Creed 
and say, " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church: the 
Communion of Saints.'' 

Now, I would ask, how have those, who profess this 
faith, discharged the duties which we have seen are re- 
quired by the Holy Scriptures, towards this class of their 
fellow christians and fellow men ? Here, in these northern 
States, free States, so called, what is the actual and 
state of the case, as regards the colored people. I will not 
speak of their deprivation of many civil rights, which all 
others enjoy, but I shall speak of their religious privileges. 
Here, in many of our cities, we have established colored 
churches with colored persons in Holy Orders to serve in 
them. Now, why was this separation of Christians made, 
and why continued on account of color ? Is it not pur- 
posely to keep these latter in a separate external commu- 
nion ? Is it not on purpose to perpetuate caste in the 
Christian Church? Indeed, this is all but openly a. vowed 
in the report of the committee of the convention of the 
Episcopal Church hi New- York, upon the application of 
one of these Churches to be admitted to the convention.* 

Who would say that the colored Churches enjoy the 
same privileges as Churches, or that the individuals com- 
posing them take the same rank as Christians, as the 
members of white Churches, or of those individuals belong- 
ing to wdiite Churches ? Then, what shall we say of 
those persons of color admitted to Holy Orders ? We have 
a Theological Seminary, where it is thought the Students 
enjoy peculiar advantages of a literary and theological 

* Appendix A. 



APPENDIX. 339 

nature, and where some think their religious and pious 
habits are improved and strengthened. To this Seminary, 
a young man of color, though he be baptized with the 
baptism of the blessed Jesus, both with water and the 
Spirit — ^though he have received grace and strength by 
the imposition of the chief pastor's hands — though he have 
received the body and blood of his once sacrificed Saviour 
and Lord — though thus his humanity is exalted to a par- 
ticipation of the Divine Nature, and though he be hereby 
enabled to live godly, righteously and soberly, yet he can- 
not be admitted because his skin is not as clear and his 
complexion as bright as others, who are permitted to en- 
joy these opportunities for intellectual, moral and religious 
improvement ? What a comment this upon the doctrine 
of " Communion of Saints !" Such are compelled to seek 
their education where best they can obtain it. — When 
such have received Holy Orders, they are empowered to 
admit members into this Holy Fellowship of which we 
have spoken ; to" remit or retain sins ;" to offer the Holy 
Sacrifice on G-od's Altar, and to distribute to penitent sin- 
ners the bread of life. They are to stand in the immediate 
presence of Christ at His Altar, to intercede for the people. 
This is their high calling in the Church of Christ. But 
they can only do this in the presence of colored persons ; 
to permit such to minister in white congregations would, 
even now by many, be considered an outrage upon decency.^ 
How is this feeling and this practice at variance with the 
doctrine of " Communion of Saints." How earnest should 
be our prelates and clergy to enforce upon their hearers 
the importance of carrying out the principles involved in 
the belief of this doctrine. The Church with us should 
take the lead in abolishing all those remaining distinctions 
on account of color, which interfere with a cordial recep- 
tion of this doctrine and the full enjoyment of every Chris- 

* In one of our northern Churches, the priest happened accident- 
ally, on administering the Holy Elements at the Communion, to de- 
liver them to a colored communicant when one white woman had not 
received — she rejected the offered bread, because it had not first 
been given her. This produced such a prejudice against the pastor 
that he was obliged to leave the place. 



340 APPENDIX. 

tian and Spiritual privilege by each member of the Body 
of Christ. If the laity are brought to see their duty as 
Christians, they will soon be convinced of it as States- 
men ; then, all those laws which tend to continue caste, 
and all those customs which pepetuate it, will soon, with 
us, be done away. Of the whole number of prelates and 
clergy in both branches of the Catholic Church, eight 
hundred and twenty-eight are now exercising their holy 
functions and preaching the gospel of " peace and good 
will" among men in the southern part of this Union. 
Their congregations are composed, for the most part, of 
persons of influence and intelligence. Indeed, I think we 
may say that if we consider the Anglican Church as it 
exists in most of these states, and the Roman Church as it 
exists in Maryland, Louisiana and Missouri, it may be 
affirmed with confidence, that the persons who attend on 
the congregations connected with these Churches exercise 
a great influence, and if united on this one subject, would 
exercise a controlling power over the civil and religious in- 
stitutions there existing. Let it be remembered that it is 
professed by all these persons, " I believe in the Holy 
Catholic Church ; the Communion of Saints." Within the 
part of the country where this doctrine is or ought to be 
proclaimed are, as we have said, two and a half millions 
of slaves. I am willing to admit that many of these clergy 
do labor for the spiritual good of this colored race — all 
thanks and all praise be to them for this. Let us consider 
under what disadvantages these labor in prosecuting their 
" labor of love." I am compelled to bring into view the 
state of the slave laws as they exist, to show that so long 
as these laws remain in force, but little hope need be en- 
tertained of any success in extending the Catholic Church 
among those who are subjected to them. God forbid that 
I should refer to them for the sake of exciting hostility or 
hatred towards those who permit them to remain, but 
rather, should this discourse ever reach such as these, to 
exhort them to labor day and night for their amelioration 
or repeal. From a work written by a lawyer condensing 
the laws by which slaves and people of color are governed, 
(for there is one set of laws for whites and another for 



APPENDIX. 341 

blacks, even though they be free,) I make extract of the 
following propositions, which bring prominently to view 
the general character of these laws. 

I. " The master may determine the kind and degree 
of labor to which the slave shall be subjected. 

II. The master may supply the slave with such food 
and clothing only, both as to quantity and quality, as he 
may think proper or find convenient. 

III. The master may, at his discretion, inflict any 
punishment upon the person of his slave. 

IV. All the power of the master over his slave may 
be exercised, not by himself only in person, but by any one 
whom he may depute as his agent. 

Y. Slaves have no legal right of property in things, 
real or personal ; but whatever they may acquire belongs, 
in point of law, to their masters. 

VI. The slave, being a personal chattel, is at all times 
liable to be sold absolutely, or mortgaged, or leased, at the 
will of his master. 

VII. He may be sold, by process of law, for the satis- 
faction of the debts of a living, or the debts and bequests 
of a deceased master, at the suit of creditors or legatees. 

VIII. A slave cannot be a party before a judicial tri- 
bunal, in any species of action, against his master, no 
matter how atrocious may have been the injury received 
from him. 

IX. Slaves cannot redeem themselves nor obtain a 
change of master, though cruel treatment may have ren- 
dered such a change necessary for their personal safety. 

X. Slaves, being objects of property, if injured by third 
persons, their owners may bring suit for the injury. 

XL Slaves can make no contract. 
XII. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual." 
All the laws to regulate the intercourse between slaves 
and their masters are based upon these propositions. 
These laws are exceedingly severe in the penalties which 
they inflict. They recognize the unlimited right of the 
master over the person of his slaves, or his creditor, or 
assignee, or executor to sell them in any way, young or 
old, married or unmarried, to be transported, if the pur- 



342 APPENDIX. 

chaser will, to any part of these United States where sla- 
very is established. Hence, it often happens that such 
sales are made solely with reference to the greatest amount 
of money to he realized. If this can be effected by the 
separation of father and mother from their children or from 
one another, it is done without scruple.^ In most of the 
principal cities from Baltimore to the extreme south, there 
are slave marts, where hundreds and thousands, young 
and old, are exposed for sale by those who have purchased 
them on speculation. I will mention no other of the many, 
many hardships and sufferings which slaves are called to 
endure under the operation of these laws. Those who are 
called free persons of color, though they may not be sold 
as others are, yet are under the most rigid restraints, and 
are governed by laws almost as severe. To all persons of 
color, either slaves or free, it is unlawful to communicate 
the elements of learning. The individual who instructs 
such to read or write, is liable to conviction as a public 
offender. — But, my hearers, I will go no farther into detail ; 
it is a subject on which I delight not to dwell ; I have said 
enough to show you what is the real condition of colored 
people in our southern States. Recollect, then, that some 
of these very persons have been baptized into the Body of 
Christ, have received His Body and His Blood and are one 
with Him and one with us, as the members of His one 
Body. He died to redeem them as well as us — to raise 
their fallen humanity, that they may become Saints here 
and heirs of His kingdom hereafter. Such, no doubt, some 
of them are. 

In view of all this, let us look at the practical operation 

* An acquaintance was travelling in Virginia — he met a large 
number of youths of both sexes, from ten to fourteen years of age. 
They were under the charge of drivers. He said, " where bound F 
" To Alabama." " These slaves are all young," said our friend. " 
yes ! we find it most profitable to buy young negroes and take ad- 
vantage of their growth." Some of these children perhaps, had 
Christian parents, and had been, by Christ's ministers, " baptised 
into His Body," made His " children and inheritors of the Kingdom 
of Heaven." They were torn from their parents and consigned over 
to the drivers, to be sold on speculation. What an awful thought, 
to sell and make merchandize of parts of the Body of Christ ! ! ! 



APPENDIX. 343 

of what are called efforts to extend the Church in this 
quarter., among these people. Bishops and Clergy have 
not been found in any great number, who defend this sys- 
tem. Many are the number of those who are doing what 
they can to instruct these oppressed human beings. Some 
of our Bishops have framed catechisms,, to be taught them 
orally. Many of our Clergy labor among these people, by 
teaching them to repeat their catechisms, to join memori- 
ter in parts of the Church service, and they read and 
explain to them the Scriptures. According to their re- 
ports, they succeed frequently in adding numbers of such 
to the communion of the Church, and we hope to the 
Communion of Saints. They tell them, that it is the duty 
of every truly penitent sinner to be baptised with water 
and the Spirit, and to give his children to God, that in 
Holy Baptism they may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
and be grafted into the Body of Christ. Those who are fit 
to be confirmed, he presents to the Bishop for confirmation. 
Such young persons as come to him desiring to be united 
in Holy Matrimony, he marries. Those that give evidence 
that ;" Christ is in them," and who lead holy and godly 
lives, he admits to partake of the ever blessed Sacrament 
of His Body and Blood. 

Trace now the progress of a single individual through 
this training of the Church. In infancy, he is baptized ; 
his parents or sponsors were made to promise that he shall 
be taught the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Com- 
mandments ; that he shall, at a suitable age, be brought to 
the Bishop to be confirmed by him. "When he comes to 
confirmation, the Bishop says: "Defend this thy servant 
with thy heavenly grace ; may he continue thine for ever, 
and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and more, until 
he come to thine everlasting kingdom.'' He comes to his 
Pastor to be united in Holy Matrimony, and he is made to 
promise to live with his partner till death do them part. 
I ask, how can a minister of the Church require these 
promises of his Christian brethren, when he knows that 
the children do not belong to the parent, nor wives to their 
husbands, and that at the will of the master, or in conse- 
quence of his embarrassment, or debt, these, ties may at 



344 APPENDIX. 

once be rent asunder ; the father sold to one, the mother 
to another, the children to others, and all perhaps to go to 
Texas or other parts, where they can never enjoy the small 
Christian privileges which they have have had? 

How discouraging this to a minister if he have a real 
and firm belief in this doctrine of Communiou of Saints. 
What a damper must this thought, that all these promises 
and all these exhortations may have been made or given 
ibr nought, cast over all his efforts.^ 

* I wish to enforce this idea with a few examples. Bishop Meade 
of Virginia, one of our Evangelical Bishops, was once a slaveholder. 
He has given his slaves freedom on condition, of course, that they 
leave the state; some have gone to Liberia. Now I do not know 
whether Bishop M. believes the Catholic doctrine, but I suppose he 
holds a doctrine of "Communion of Saints." Suppose one of his 
brethren in Christ, when lie offered to him the alternative of perpe- 
tual banishment from his home, his family and his friends, or else 
continued slavery, had said " my dear pastor, you taught me that 
as a Christian I must do to others as I would have them do to me. 
Now, how would you like to have banishment or slavery offered to 
you, and you be compelled to choose either one or the other?" Says 
the Bishop, " But you know that the law is such, I cannot give you 
freedom except on this condition." Says the slave, " But who makes 
and alters laws ? what have you said or done to try to procure the 
repeal of such a law ?" What could the Bishop say ? 

Go a little farther South. Here resides our Evangelical brother 
Barnwell of Charleston, S. C. He established a paper to dissemi- 
nate the blessed doctrine of God's sovereign grace. Would not his 
paper have been more useful, had it inculcated the doctrine of 
" Communion of Saints ?" He and his congregation, which is com- 
posed of some of the most distinguished and influential laymen in 
the State, have contributed one thousand dollars per annum, to 
support Bishop Boone in China. Suppose an intelligent Chinaman 
were to say to Bishop B. : " Is it true, that in the country from which 
you came to convert us to your religion, millions of men, women and 
children are slaves — have no rights as men and are bought and sold 
like beasts of burden ?" He would be compelled to say " yes." He 
might be asked, " Did you raise your voice against this evil ? Do 
those who send you here, strive to procure the repeal of those laws, 
which, heathens as we are, we should reject with horror ?" What 
could Bishop B. say to this ? 

Go a little farther South. We find that Bishop Elliott established 
a literary institution where young men were to be educated for the 
ministry, to be supported by slave labor. Suppose Bishop E. to 
have succeeded in the conversion of some of these slave laborers, 
might not one have said, " Bishop E. is it not hard for one, whom 



APPENDIX. 345 

What then is to be done when such a state of things 
exists in the Catholic Church ? We apprehend the mis- 
sion of these Prelates and these Clergy is first of all to the 
whites ; to those who wield the power of making and al- 
tering the laws. The excuse, usually made by the Clergy 
to justify those practices which seem to be. and really are, 
inconsistent with the divine precept of ' ; doing unto others 
as we would wish they would do unto us/' is, that they 
must submit to the civil law. Granted — but who makes 
the law ? Do not the members of the Catholic Church 
constitute a large proportion of lawmakers? The Clergy 
should constantly, unitedly, and perseyeringly, insist upon 
the repeal of every law. which imposes a burden on their 
Christian sieve brethren, that they would not willingly 
submit to, if they were slaves themselves. 

The painful question now comes up, how has this 
duty, in our whole country been discharged? AYherehave 



you call a brother in Christ, to work hard with no pay. to be exposed 
to all the hardships of the slave law. not to be even the owner of his 
wife and children, that these young men may be educated to preach 
the gospel of peace and good will F He would sav, " It is so in- 
deed, but the law is so and I cannot help it."' He might say, 
M What have you done or said in opposition to this law, where 
have you protested against this injustice done to your fellow Chris- 
tians P 

Go farther South. Bishop Polk, who is said to be a most amiable 
person, is the owner (so reported) of three hundred and fifty slaves. 
We have no reason to think that he does not attend to their spiri- 
tual and temporal interest as a kind master should. Suppose one 
of these of the number of his own communicants, one whom he him 
self had baptized and confirmed and admitted to the Holy Eucharist, 
should say. u My dear master. I feel my situation to be very inse* 
cure, at present ; I am happy under your care ; I have the company 
of my wife and children ; but suppose death were to remove you or 
misfortune to overtake you, then, what is to become of me and 
mine \ Where, then, will be the Christian privileges which I now 
enjoy as a member of the Body of Christ V The Bishop might say, 
%i I know the laws which prevail here, are severe and seem to be at 
variance with the teaching and practice of the Church, but I did not 
make them.*' " But who sits still and permits these laws to remain 
in all their severity j What have you even said or done to call 
the attention of Christian people to their enormity and effect their 
repeal ?" 

15* 



346 APPENDIX. 

been the Prelates, where the Clergy, of either branch of the 
Church, that have had the Christian fortitude and bold- 
ness, fearlessly to preach the doctrine of Communion of 
Saints, and insist upon the discharge, by the members of 
their flocks, of the duties required by its belief? There 
have not been wanting those who have palliated and ex- 
cused these customs and these laws in the United States, 
by which one class of Christian brethren in the North are 
purposely kept as a distinct, separate and neglected people ; 
in the South are oppressed with bondage " grievous to be 
borne," and are compelled to submit to laws and injuries 
a parallel to which cannot be found upon earth. * 

But where have been the exhortations, the counsel, and 
the instructions of the Clergy of the Church ? In the 
Pastoral Letters of our House of Bishops, which ought to 
have great influence in this land, we look in vain lor an 
allusion to this subject. t 

These laws and these uncatholic practices have existed 
since our country called itself free and independent. When 
and where has any portion of the Church, through its ac- 
credited organs, the Bishops and the conventions within its 
boundaries, entered its solemn protest against this oppres- 
sion and degradation of some portion of her own members, 
even the members of the Body of Christ ? It is not to be 
desired that the Church, as a Church, should enter upon a 
crusade against slavery, and should denounce all those, 
who, perhaps not by their own consent, are owners of 
slaves. But she ought, where slavery does exist, to insist 
that the laws should be so altered, as to give to her color- 
ed members the privileges to which they are entitled as 
co-members with themselves of the " Body of Christ," 
and where it does not exist, that all those practices, and 
customs, and exclusions, be abolished, which tend to sepa- 
rate one Christian nock from communion, as Christians, 
with another. 

If the united voice of the Church were put forth it 
would be heard, it would be regarded. If the exertions of 

* Even in Cuba the laws are far less severe, 
t Appendix B. 



APPENDIX. 347 

every Catholic in this land were directed to ameliorate the 
condition of the slave and to elevate the character of the 
colored people — if their prayers were unitedly to ascend 
before His throne in whose hand are the hearts of all men, 
that He would dispose all Christian Rulers to " do justly, 
and to love mercy," then might we hope to see this all im- 
portant doctrine of " the Communion of Saints" held, not 
as a speculative theory, but as a living, acting, and influ- 
ential principle. God grant that we may live to see this ! 



APPENDIX TO DISCOURSE. 



THE CASE OF ST. PHILIPS CHURCH, N. Y. 

A. — St. Philip's Church in the year a. d. 1846, made application 
to be admitted into the Convention of the Episcopal Church of New 
York. It was moved by the Hon. John C. Spencer to lay the sub- 
ject on the table. This was not carried, the vote stood : Ciergy, ayes 
54 noes 88 — Laity, Ayes 70 noes 54. The application was referred 
to a select committee to report to the convention, consisting of Wm. 
H. Harison, Esq., Rev. E. M. Johnson, Rev. Dr. Sherwood, the Hon. 
J. C. Spencer and John A. King, Esq. The following was the report 
of a majority of the committee. 

REPORT : COMMITTEE ON ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH. 

The Committee to which was referred the subject of the admission 
of St. Philip's, and other colored congregations, into representation 
in the Convention of this Diocese, report : 

That in their view, the question referred to them is one exclusively 
relating to the temporal government of the Diocese, and is wholly 
unconnected with the religious rights or duties of the applicants. 
The Convention is but a part of what may be called the civil ma- 
chinery, instituted by human wisdom, for the purpose of regulating 
the Society, by which, and for whose benefit, it was established. It 
is no more a part of our Church in this country, in a religious view, 
than are the civil establishments and the connection with the govern- 
ment in England, part of the Church there. In both countries the 
arrangements for the administration of the government of the Church 
are the result of experience and adaptation to circumstances. Among 
the considerations of expediency, which any body of men, uniting 
together for a common purpose, would deem the most important, 
must be that of determining with whom they would associate, and 
who should be permitted to participate in the government of the 
Society. Thus, for reasons of expediency, females, however worthy, 
are by our canons excluded from being representatives in our Con- 
tention, and are, by law, incapable of being incorporated as mem- 



APPENDIX. 349 

bers of Churches. Candidates for orders, are, by a canon of the 
General Convention, prohibited from being members of that body. 
These instances are sufficient to illustrate the principle on which our 
Church organizations are founded, and to show that they are entirely 
distinct from the religious rights and spiritual privileges of those, 
who, in a spiritual view, are members of our Churches. If it be an 
incident to Church membership to be represented in the councils of 
the Church, then have we, in common with all Christian denomina- 
tions, from the time of the Apostles, unjustly and tyrannically de- 
prived female members of sacred rights. 

When society is unfortunately divided into classes — when some 
are intelligent, refined, and elevated, in tone and character, and 
others are ignorant, coarse, and debased, however unjustly, and 
when such prejudices exist between them, as to prevent social inter- 
course on equal terms, it would seem inexpedient to encounter such 
prejudices, unnecessarily, and endeavor to compel the one class to 
associate on equal terms in the consultations on the affairs of the 
Diocese, with those whom they would not admit to their tables, or 
into their family circles — nay, whom they would not admit into 
their pews, during public worship. If Christian duty require that 
we should in all respects, treat equally, all persons, without refer^ 
ence to their social condition, should we not commence the discharge 
of that duty in our individual and social relations ? And is it not 
the fact that we have never so regarded our duty or have wilfully 
violated it, sufficient evidence of the existence of a state of society 
among us that renders an amalgamation of such discordant mate- 
rials, impracticable, if not hazardous to our unity and harmony ? 
We deeply sympathize with the colored race in our country, we feel 
acutely their wrongs, and, not the least among them, their social 
degradation. But this cannot prevent our seeing the fact, that they 
are socially degraded, and are not regarded as proper associates for 
the class of persons who attend our Convention. We object not to 
the color of the skin, but we question their possession of those qua- 
lities which would render their intercourse with the members of a 
Church Convention useful or agreeable, even to themselves. We 
should make the same objections to persons of the same social class, 
however pure may be their blood, or however transparent their 
skin. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that such opposites 
should commingle with any pleasure or satisfaction to either. The 
colored people have themselves shown their conviction of this truth, 
by separating themselves from the whites, and forming distinct con- 
gregations where they are not continually humbled by being treated 
as inferiors. Why should not the principle on which they have se- 
parated themselves be carried out in the other branches of our Church 
organization ? 

Striking instances are furnished in the early, and indeed in every 
period of the history of the Christian Church, of conformity in out- 
ward things, and in matters not essential, to the customs, usages, 
and even prejudices of the age. We have in our own country in- 



350 APPENDIX. 

veterate customs and prejudices, on the subject under consideration, 
which cannot be overcome. Is it not the part of wisdom to submit 
to them until, by a change of circumstances, the occasion for them 
shall cease to exist ? Would not our present duty to this unfortu- 
nate race, be fully performed by extended and liberal efforts to im- 
prove their mind and their condition by intellectual culture, by reli- 
gious instruction, aud as they advance in intelligence and refinement, 
by relaxing the severities of caste, which now separate us, until by 
degrees they become fitted for the duties and enjoyments of a higher 
social condition ; and then admit them, in our public and private 
intercourse, to free and equal communion. 

The efforts of zealous philanthropists to break down the barriers 
which custom has interposed, and which have so long existed between 
the colored and other races, and against the laws of society, and the 
sentiments and feelings of the community, to compel an unnatural 
and forced equality, have hitherto been attended with results equally 
unfortunate to the peculiar objects of their solicitude, and to the 
great interests and beneficieut institutions, in connection with which 
such efforts have been made. They have been directed to our com- 
mon schools ; and not satisfied with the abundant provision which 
has, in many places, been made for the education of colored children, 
their special friends and advocates have insisted that they should be 
admitted to the schools of white children, and have thus caused di^ 
sensions and conflict to the great injury of those institutions, while 
feeings of sympathy and commiseration have been too frequently 
converted into disgust and anger. 

Efforts of a similar character, and for the same purpose, have 
been made to give position in our Churches to colored people, which 
would compel association and intercourse with them. It is obviou3 
that such movements are but incipient steps to ulterior objects in 
relation to the vexed and irritating subject of slavery. Beginning 
with simple and apparently just propositions respecting the abstract 
rights of this portion of our population, their professed friends and 
advocates have advanced, step by step, until they have prepared the 
way to agitate the bold question of the Christian character of those 
whose sentiments do not accord with their own. The rending as- 
under of Churches — the disruption of societies—bitter animosities, 
and all manner of uncharitableness, have been the invariable results. 

By the wise and prudent counsels of the Fathers of our Church, 
our denomination ! ! has been hitherto happily free from the agita- 
tion of these and kindred questions — such as temperance, or absti- 
nence from liquors and wine — and the consequences have been peace 
and quiet among ourselves, and the respect of others. An instance 
of this caution is furnished in the case of St. Philip's Church, whose 
application to be represented in the Convention is now under con- 
sideration. It appears from the minutes of the Standing Committee 
of this diocese, that in March, 1819, on the application of the lamented 
Bishop Hobart to that committee for advice in relation to the admis- 
sion of a colored person as a candidate for Holy Orders, they unani- 



APPENDIX. 351 

fnousiy advised his admission, upon the distinct understanding, that 
in the event of his being admitted to Orders, he should not "be en- 
titled to a seat in the convention, nor the congregation of which he 
may have charge, to a representation therein." It is understood 
that these conditions were approved by the bishop, and were as- 
sented to by the applicant and the congregation. And although 
that church has been organized, and in existence for more than a 
quarter of a century, it has, until now, abided by the terms thus 
settled. The present applicants, it is presumed, were not aware 
of these arrangements, as it is not to be supposed that they would in- 
tentionally be guilty of a violation of good faith. Thus, for this long 
period, has this question been actually and peaceably settled, and 
remained undisturbed. 

The legal, moral, and equitable right of the convention to deter- 
mine what churches it will admit into union, so as to entitle them to 
a representation in this body, seems to your committee unquestion- 
able. The fourth canon provides certain indispensable conditions to 
entitle any church to admission — but no where is it declared that 
these are the only conditions — and the invariable practice of the 
convention in taking the vote upon the admission of any church, 
shows that it has reserved to itself the right of judging of the expe- 
diency of the measure, after all the former requisites are complied 
with. Otherwise the report of the committee, certifying to the fact 
of such compliance, would be in itself conclusive. The provision in 
the same canon, requiring the preliminary approbation of the bi- 
shop or of the standing committee " of the incorporation of such 
church," relates only to the separate and independent existence of 
the congregation as a corporate body, and not to its union with or 
representation in this convention. 

Besides, the very requirements of the canon, — that churches shall 
be politically incorporated, before admission into union with the 
Convention, shows conclusively that the right of admission is subject 
to regulation, and therefore that such question is one purely of ex- 
pediency, and not one of Christian privilege or right. 

Cases may easily be conceived, and such have actually occurred, 
where it would not only be highly inexpedient, but grossly unjust to 
existing churches, to admit into union new applicants. Various 
circumstances, more or less important, will necessarily enter into the 
consideration of the convention in determining such a question. 

In the short time allowed the committee to consider the subject, 
and to express their views, they have been unable to give such a full 
exhibition of all the considerations which present themselves as they 
would have desired. They think, however, that they have said 
enough to cause reflection, and to show how full of difficulty would 
be the adoption of the principle in relation to St. Philip's Church, or 
any other colored congregation, of admitting their representatives to 
seats in this Convention. If once here they would be entitled to all 
the consideration, and to participate in all the duties and stations to 
which members may be assigned, or we shall practically repudiate 



352 APPENDIX. 

the principle which admitted them. It is not believed that this con- 
vention, for instance, would send one of them as a deputy to the 
General Convention, on account of the offence it would occasion to 
our brethren of other dioceses. Thus, their condition would be prac- 
tically and continually one of inferiority and humiliation — more pain- 
fully aggravated by the expectation induced by an act which appar- 
ently promised their perfect equality. Your committee do not believe 
that such an equality can be produced — that in the nature of things 
it can exist in this community — great and palpable inequality must 
prevail to the extent of preventing the colored race from any active 
participation in our Church government — and they believe that an 
attempt to correct it, contrary to the feelings and customs of our 
country, would not only be abortive, but would be attended with 
the worst consequences to our unity, our ha-mony. and our efficiency. 
They, therefore, recommend that neither St. Philip's, nor any other 
colored congregation, be admitted into union with this Convention, 
so as to entitle them to a representation therein. The consequence 
of such a determination probably will be, that such Churches and 
congregations will not be responsible to, or under the government or 
control of this convention, but will remain subject to the ordinary 
jurisdiction of their bishop — and when their members become ade- 
quate, may have church councils of their own for their o\vn peculiar 
government. 

All which is respectfully submitted, 

Wm. H. Hartson, 
Reuben Sherwood, 
J. C. Spencer. 
tfew-York, Oct. 2, 1846. 
This report was never submitted to the Committee at all. The 
minorit}' report was drawn up without a knowledge of what the 
majority report would contain. Its author hardly need say that 
this is entirely opposed to the doctrine of " Communion of Saints," 
and to the exercise of those Christian graces which a belief of it im- 
poses upon the members of the Catholic Church. The following is 
the minority report, 



MINORITY REPORT: ST. PHILIPS CHURCH. 

The undersigned, a minority of the Committee appointed by this 
Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of 
Kew-York, to consider the application of St. Philip's Church in this 
city, to be admitted into communion with this Convention, do here- 
by Report: 

That they regret exceedingly to be obliged to differ from the 
majority of said Committee. They do not make this report with a 
view of exciting or encouraging any discussion in this Convention of 



APPENDIX. 353 

topics, in no way connected with the subject of this application. 
About thirty years ago, a congregation of colored people was organi- 
zed in this city as an Episcopal Church, with the approbation of the 
Episcopal Authority of this Diocese. It has continued since to con- 
form to the doctrines, worship, and usages of this Church most uni- 
formly and constantly. It now asks to be admitted to enjoy what 
its members consider to be the privileges which other Churches have, 
of being received into the full fellowship of their Christian brethren, 
by admission to this Convention. The minority of your Committee 
do not hesitate to say, that, although at the time of the organizing of 
this congregation, it was thought to be a wise and salutary measure, 
yet in their opinion, subsequent events should lead us to doubt the 
propriety or expediency of such organization. 

It is now too late to undo, in this particular, what has been done. 
The minority of your Committee can see no reason why this appli- 
cation should not be granted, and think there are special reasons 
why it should. 

It is said that it was stipulated on the part of individuals of that 
congregation at the time of its organization, or before the ordination 
of the late pious and reverend Mr. Williams, that they would not 
apply for admission into this Convention. This we believe they did 
not do ; but we cannot conceive how the present generation, belong- 
ing to that Church, can be bound by any stipulation of that kind, 
made by those who, we trust, have long since departed hence in the 
Lord, and been received into communion with the saints in Para- 
dise. The present members of that Church do not think as their 
fathers did on that subject. It may be said that if this Church be 
admitted, others will be organized and apply for admission. How- 
ever much this is to be regretted, yet we suppose such will be the 
fact, and on this very account, this subject merits the very serious con- 
sideration of this Convention. Suppose Churches, now to be com- 
posed of colored people exclusively, are organized in our principal 
cities — suppose they are refused equal Christian privileges with 
other Episcopal Churches — that the Conventions of our Dioceses 
refuse to take them under their charge, and into their fellowship — 
will not these Churches unite and form a Convention of their own ? 
Will they not choose a Bishop or Bishops of their own ? And under 
such circumstances, would they find any difficulty in obtaining Apos- 
tolical succession ? We fear the refusal of our Convention to admit 
into their fellowship this portion of their Christian brethren, will 
inevitably lead to a schism in the Church, by the establishment of 
another Episcopal Church in these United States. All must admit 
this would be a sore evil. 

The minority of your Committee beg the Convention to pause 
before they take a step which may lead to such a disastrous 
result. 

It may well be asked, Can it be that because those who seek 
admission here are of a different race and complexion from ourselves, 
that doubts are entertained of the expediency of admitting them to 



354 APPENDIX. 

union with this Convention ? Have they not the Bible for then- 
guide ? Do they read in it that its divine precepts, its universal 
charity, its promised rewards, are limited to any race or nation ? 
Was not the Gospel vouchsafed to all men, to be proclaimed to all 
nations ? 

The minority of your Committee expressly disavow any other 
motive in thus recommending the admission of this Church, than 
that of promoting peace and harmony, and carrying out into prac- 
tice the great Catholic doctrine of intercommunion of saints, as 
taught in the Bible, the word of God. These persons who apply 
for this fellowship have been made, in Holy Baptism, " members of 
Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven" — 
they " eat his flesh and drink his blood," and thus are incorporated 
into Him ; with us, they are one with Him, and He is one with them. 
However just and proper distinctions in society may be in other 
respects, yet as members of one Holy Catholic Church, there ought 
to be no other distinction than that made by superior self-denial, 
holiness and virtue. 

The minority of your Committee would deprecate most ear- 
nestly any prolonged or excited discussions of this subject, or the 
introduction of questions not necessarily connected with it, and 
recommend that this Church be admitted into union with this Con- 
vention. 

All of which is respectfully submitted, 

Evan M. Johnson, 
John A. King. 
New -York, Oct. 2, 1846. 

Had the author of this last report been permitted to know the 
contents of the former, he would have corrected some of its mis- 
statements and called special attention to some of its strange posi- 
tions. He will endeavor to do this now. It is not true, that this 
question " is wholly unconnected with the religious rights or duties 
of the applicants," or that our Conventions are " civil machinery." I 
ask, who elects our Bishop ? Who elects the delegates to our Gene- 
ral Convention ? All the rites of the Church and its liturgy may be 
changed, or modified by this body — doctrines set forth and duties 
prescribed by these, the Bishops and Conventions ; and yet we are 
told, in this report, that our Convention is only to regulate "the 
Society" and is like the Parliament in England in respect to the 
Church in England. Had it been said that our State Conventions 
were like the Provincial Synods of Great Britain, this would have 
been true. I ask if the Bishops, in the West Indies, were to call a 
meeting of a Provincial Synod, is it probable that they would call 
only the white clergymen of their Dioceses ? 

One would, from this report, think that this amplication for ad- 
mission was from the females of St. Philip's Church. This is not 
true. I suppose the females of that congregation wish to be repre- 
sented as other females are, by their fathers, and husbands, and 
brothers. 



APPENDIX. 355 

We hardly know what to say to this. " We object not to the 
color of the skin, but we question their possession of those qualities 
which would render their intercourse with the members of a Church 
Convention useful or agreeable, even to themselves." What quali- 
ties are here meant ? Do none of them possess those " qualities" 
which our Saviour recognizes in them as all sufficient to make 
them members of His body ? They may have these, but these are 
not the qualities which they must have to belong to a Church 
Convention. [ am glad it is said a Church and not the Church Con- 
vention. 

I have striven in vain to reconcile the following passage with 
other parts of this report and with the rejection of this Church 
which it recommends, " Would not our present duty to this unfortu- 
nate race be fully performed by extended and liberal efforts to 
improve their mind and condition, by intellectual culture, by reli- 
gious instruction, and, as they advance in intelligence and refine- 
ment, by relaxing the severities of caste, which now separate us, 
until, by degrees, they become fitted for the duties and enjoyments 
of a higher social condition, and then, admit them in our public and 
private intercourse, to free and equal communion?" I answer to 
this question, yes, it would be — and the best time to begin to dis- 
charge this duty is, now: and by rejecting the recommendation of 
this majority report, convince our brethren that our intention is sin- 
cere and not a mere profession of words. 

When the author of the minority report wrote of the possibility, 
if this Church were rejected, of the establishment of another Church, 
he did not know that the very thing itself would be recommended 
by the majority. 

" The consequence of such a determination (to refuse admit- 
tance) probably will be, that such Churches and congregations will 
not be responsible to, or under the government or control of this 
Convention, but will remain subject to the ordinary jurisdiction of 
their Bishop — and when their members become adequate, may 
have Church Councils of their own for their own peculiar govern- 
ment," (and of course Bishops.) Here is a positive and direct 
recommendation to destroy the unity of the Church, rather, than to 
adopt the training process recommended in the former extract. I 
can only say that if the Convention of New- York adopt, as their 
own, the sentiments advocated in this report and the measure 
recommended by it, they may boast themselves as much as they 
please, of their adherence to Catholic truth, and speak of the sacri- 
fices they are called to make for their defence of it ; the whole 
Catholic Church will give them little credit for their consistency or 
orthodoxy. Some time during the last year, in the State of Indiana, 
a newspaper controversy was carried on in opposition to and in 
defence of the Church. It was argued by the Church opponents, 
that by this very report which was quoted, the Episcopal Church 
did not desire or expect common people to belong to it — that it was 
for those who thought themselves select members of Society. Let 



356 APPENDIX. 

us hope and pray that our brethren of the Laity, will not be 
alarmed at the cry of "Abolitionism," or any other "ism;" but will 
strive to disarm themselves of prejudice and will pray the great 
Head of the Church, to preserve them from giving just cause of 
complaint to any, even the weakest, the most oppressed, or the most 
despised of their fellow Christians, who are, with them, members of 
the one Catholic and Apostolic Church in the world, which is, and 
which is to come. 



B. Slavery Extension. — The Christian Philanthropist will 
rejoice that public attention is now distinctly turned to this sub- 
ject. It must be remembered that the Mexican States, when they 
threw off the Spanish yoke and declared themselves free and inde- 
pendent, did, with far more consistency than these States, abolish 
slavery absolutely and wholly. When the adventurers, mostlv 
from the slave States of this Union, took possession of the State of 
Texas, they re-established slavery where it had for manv vears 
ceased to exist. It was admitted to this Union as slave territory. 
The operation of this, politically, is, that in Texas two white votes 
are as good as five in New-York, and the same laws by which 
slavery is enforced in our slave States are in operation there. 
Indeed it was openly declared to be one principal object in re- 
ceiving Texas into this Union, to obtain a market for human beings 
and to extend the area of slave territory. We have now in effect 
conquered New Mexico and California. At present there are, in 
these States, no slaves. The questions now are, shall slavery be 
again established there, or shall it not ? Shall this great region be 
settled by freemen wholly or by slaves and their masters ? Shall 
those severe and cruel laws under which so many millions of men, 
and women, and children now suffer, be extended over this terri- 
tory, or shall it be subjected to but one system of laws and those 
for freemen? As a political question, would any one suppose, 
that a single individual in these northern States, who calls him- 
self a Republican, in any sense of the term, would either advocate 
this extension or fail to do every thing in his power, by his influ- 
ence, by his vote, by his voice, and by his pen to hinder such a 
lasting evil and disgrace from being brought upon his country ! 
Thank God, as a party, the pro-slavery party are few in number 
and becoming still fewer in influence. If worldly-minded poli- 
ticians at the North are found who oppose this extension simply 
from political motives, I ask where are the Christian clergy at 
the South ? What are they doing ? Has one of them raised a 
voice against the extension of slavery ? Suppose St. Vincent de 
Paul were, at this time, Bishop of New Orleans, would he see 
thousands and thousands of his fellow men and Christians, 
marched in chains to perpetual slavery in Texas, and not raise 
his voice in opposition ? Would he see an immense addition to 



APPENDIX. 357 

this country in his immediate neighborhood, acquired on purpose 
to plant the worst of slavery and to establish the severest slave 
laws that ever existed, and remain silent ? Oh 1 may a spirit like 
his be stirred up in the breast of every Prelate and every Clergy- 
man, that whether it cause them to be persecuted even unto death 
or not, they may fearlessly proclaim their opposition to every law, 
and every practice, and every custom, inconsistent with the cordial 
reception of the doctrine of " Communion of Saints" and the discharge 
of those duties which it enjoins. 



£f 






Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
{724)779-2111 



